MUSLIMS across Asia are celebrating the Eid al-Fitr festival with lavish feasts and religious services, even as bomb attacks killed at least 52 people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber killed 38 people and wounded 50 others, most of them policemen attending the funeral of a colleague killed earlier in the day in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, a day before the country officially marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan with Eid.

A blast in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 14 as a group of women and youngsters gathered to mourn the late wife of a pro-government tribal leader as part of their Eid prayers.

Earlier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed to the Taliban to resist control by foreigners and said the militants should support their own country.

"You are working for others, (foreign) guns are put on your shoulders, and innocent Afghan people are being killed by it, homes are destroyed," he said in his address marking the festival.

The explosion in Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province capped a bloody Ramadan for the country, where at least 11 attacks have killed more than 120 people.

There was more unrest in Thailand where police on Thursday used water cannon to prevent scores of Muslim Rohingya boat people from Myanmar (Burma) breaking out of a detention centre to celebrate the end of Ramadan, officials say.

Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesia was among the first countries in the Islamic world to kick off Eid celebrations, but fears of fresh attacks at Buddhist sites prompted a security clampdown days after a temple bombing.

Muslims in Australia were among those to celebrate Eid on Thursday, along with Malaysia and the Philippines.

Originally published as Violence strikes as Muslims celebrate Eid