38 Pakistanis were killed and other 50 were wounded, most of them policemen, on Thursday as a suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr.

38 Pakistanis were killed and other 50 were wounded, most of them policemen, on Thursday as a suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr.

The attack at police headquarters in the southwestern city of Quetta was the latest in a series of attacks highlighting the major security challenges faced by a newly elected government.

The bomber struck as officers gathered to pay their respects to a colleague who had been shot dead only hours before in Quetta, capital of the troubled province of Baluchistan.

Fayaz Sumbal, a deputy inspector general of police and one of the most senior officers in Quetta, was among those killed.

"At least 38 people have been killed and more than 50 injured," senior police official Mohammad Tariq told AFP. "Most of the dead and injured are policemen."

A son of the imam of the mosque at the police headquarters was among the dead, Doctor Syed Sarwar Shah told AFP at one hospital.