At least 25 people were killed and more than two dozen injured Tuesday in a suspected Taliban suicide bombing at a hotel in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar.

The explosion occurred in Marhaba Hotel as people were gathering for lunch. Most of the casualties were Afghans, witnesses said. Pakistan's Geo news channel quoted unnamed security officials as saying that the son of Mullah Dadullah, the chief military commander of the Taliban who was killed in Afghanistan by US-Coalition forces last week, was arrested at the hotel a few days earlier. Pakistani Interior Ministry officials in Islamabad said it was too early to link the bombing with Dadullah and his son.

"This was one of a series of bomb blasts aimed at disrupting peace and order in the province," the education minister of the restive North-West Frontier Province, Fazal Ali, told the Aaj television channel.

Akram Durrani, the chief minister of the restive North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), told Geo that the recovered remains of the unidentified suicide bomber carried a written warning that people caught spying for the United States "will meet the same fate."
Police said the device weighed 4 to 5 kg of explosives.

At least 25 people were confirmed dead, while half a dozen of the nealry 30 people injured were in critical condition.

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack while opposition parties said the leadership bore responsibility.

"The growing terrorism in the country is the result of the present government's policies," said a statement issued by exiled former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "The government has totally failed to protect citizens' lives and property."

The attack follows a weekend of street violence in the southern city of Karachi that killed more than 40 people amid clashes between the opposition and government-loyal forces.

"However many security arrangements there may be, it is not possible to stop suicide bombings," Durrani said Tuesday.