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Islamabad: A suicide bomber killed eleven people and wounded 22 in an attack on police who had been guarding Islamists marking the anniversary of an army commando raid on the Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, police said.
Senior police officer Masood Ahmad said eleven policemen were confirmed dead and more than 30 wounded in the blast, which targeted a group of more than 50 policemen from the Islamabad and Punjab province forces.
"A young man walked into the police contingent and apparently blew himself up. We have 11 policemen dead," a senior security official said.
"The blast happened 15 minutes after the meeting dispersed. A heavy contingent of police was at a main crossing several hundred metres from the mosque and they were targeted in the attack," the official added.
Policemen's batons, helmets and riot shields were scattered around the site after the blast. Television footage showed bearded students frantically running towards the scene and ambulances bringing the wounded to hospitals.
Deafening
"We were playing cricket in a nearby park when we heard a deafening blast. There were several policemen on the ground and me and my friends took them to hospital but they were dead," witness Shaqeel Ahmad said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the blast and ordered an inquiry, state media said.
"Such incidents are against the teachings of Islam and do not serve any purpose," it quoted him as saying.
The storming of the mosque on July 10 last year sparked a wave of suicide attacks across the country blamed on Al Qaida and Taliban militants which has left more than 1,000 people dead.
Government forces besieged the mosque on July 3, 2007 after the mosque launched an Islamist vigilante campaign in the capital and kidnapped several Chinese nationals.
Worshippers could be seen streaming out of the mosque after the explosion. Sirens were heard across the city as ambulances raced towards the scene on what had been a quiet evening.
Body parts, pools of blood and police caps littered the road.
Interior Ministry chief Malik said the bomber was a man in his mid-thirties with a small beard.
"We have found the upper part of the suicide bomber," he said.
Earlier yesterday, several thousand Islamists listened to fiery speeches at a protest meeting at the mosque to mark the first anniversary of the army raid on the complex.
More than 100 people were killed when commandos stormed the Red Mosque complex, which included a madrasa or seminary, on July 10 last year, after a week-long siege that began when gunmen from the mosque clashed with police outside.
Religious students
Speakers told the crowd, most of them men, that US ally President Pervez Musharraf was to blame for the bloodshed last year.
The protesters, most of them religious students, shouted holy war, in response.
December 27, 2007 - Bhutto is killed in a bomb attack after a rally in Rawalpindi. More than 20 others are also killed.
January 10, 2008 - A suicide bomber walks up to policemen outside the High Court in Lahore and sets off explosives. Nineteen people are killed, 16 policemen and three passers-by.
February 22 - A roadside bomb kills 13 members of a wedding party, including the bride, in Swat.
February 29 - A suicide attack on a police funeral in the district of Swat kills 40 people.
March 2 - At least 40 people are killed when a suicide bomber attacks a traditional tribal meeting in the tribal region of Darra Adam Kheil.
March 11 - Two suicide car bombers strike, killing 24 people, most of them in an attack on a government security office in Lahore.
March 15 - A bomb attack at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad, a favourite hangout for foreigners, kills a Turkish woman and wounds four FBI agents.
June 2 - A suicide bomber blows up a car outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad killing at least six people and wounding 20.
July 6 - Eleven people are killed in a suicide attack on police guarding Islamists who were marking the anniversary of an army commando raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad.
- Reuters
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