Blast in Pakistan kills 3 as bombers' bike hits bump

CHICHAWATNI, Pakistan, Feb 24 (Reuters) Three members of a suspected suicide bomb team were blown to pieces today when their bike laden with explosives hit a bump outside a town in Pakistan's central province of Punjab, police said.

Pakistan is in the grip of a nationwide security scare, with suicide bombers linked either to Sunni Muslim fanatics with ties to al Qaeda or Pakistani Taliban killing more than 40 people in recent weeks.

Police have also arrested several would-be bombers in cities round the country.

The men killed by the blast near Chichawatni, some 120 km north of Multan, were believed to have been on their way to attack a prayer meeting for a policeman killed in an encounter a few days ago, according to Southern Punjab Additional Inspector General Mirza Mohammed Ali.

''They belonged to those suicide bombers, the same people who are trying to kill as many government officials as they can,'' Ali said.

At least two of the dead men were students at a nearby madrasa, suspected of having links to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned Sunni Muslim sectarian militant group, according to Deputy Superintendent Bashir Ahmed.

''The head of one man has been blown off,'' Ahmed told Reuters.

Another of the dead men had his legs blown off, while the third had his stomach ripped open and died later in hospital, police said.

Initial investigations suggested the explosive was home-made.

Up to 25 people were rounded up after the blast, including a dozen from the madrasa, police said.

Factions of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group that sprang from Sipah-e-Sahaba and went on to forge close links with al Qaeda, are suspected of being behind a number of the recent suicide attacks.

Intelligence officials have also thrown suspicion on Pakistani Taliban militants as the spate of bomb attacks followed a military air strike on one of their bases in the restive Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

REUTERS MS KP1640