MULTAN, Pakistan, Feb 5 (Reuters) - At least six people were killed and about 20 wounded in a bomb blast near a Shi'ite mosque in central Pakistan on Thursday, police and witnesses said.

The explosion took place in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan in central Punjab province when a religious procession of Shi'ites was passing by the mosque.

"According to initial information six people were killed and about 20 were wounded," Ejaz Bokhari, a city police official, told Reuters.

Shi'ite account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million population, most of them Sunnis.

The two Muslim sects generally live at peace with each other but thousands of people have been killed in tit-for-tat killings and bomb attacks by militant groups over the past two decades. (Reporting by Asim Tanveerr, writing by Zeeshan Haider; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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