Nearly 80 others were injured in the explosion at the Shia Muslim rally in the Meezan Chowk area.

Pakistani Taliban militants said they had carried out the bombing.

It was the second attack on Pakistan's Shia Muslim minority this week - bombs in Lahore on Wednesday killed dozens in an attack also claimed by the Taliban.

The bombings come at a time when Pakistan is grappling with unprecedented floods that have displaced millions of people.

Organised by the Shia Imamia Students' Organisation, the rally was one of many that take place in Pakistan each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to support the Palestinian demand for a homeland.

Shia Muslims make up an estimated one in five of Pakistan's Sunni-dominated population of 160 million.

The attack comes two days after bomb attacks on a Shia procession in Lahore killed 31 people on Wednesday. At least two of the attacks were suicide bombings, police said.