ISLAMABAD, 18 July 2007 — At least 13 people were killed in a suicide attack on a rally for Pakistan’s suspended chief justice here yesterday. Police said 50 people were injured.
The attack came ahead of a verdict in a legal battle that has pitched judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Chaudhry was heading toward the district court in the capital to address a gathering of lawyers who have led mass protests against his suspension when the attacker struck, officials said.
A senior police officer said it was a suicide attack and that the severed head of the victim had been found. The attacker blew himself up on a tree-lined street leading to the large tent erected next to the court just as hundreds of people converged on the area, which was also busy with evening shoppers.
The attack comes amid an upsurge in violence following last week’s storming by government troops of the pro-Taleban Red Mosque in the capital, which killed 11 soldiers and 75 people inside the compound, mainly militants.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said 13 people were confirmed killed, including two women. Among the wounded were five policemen.
Many of the injured had their clothes ripped off by the explosion and suffered horrific burns. “I saw with my own eyes bodies being ripped apart and hands and arms flying through the air,” Shafqat Hayat, chief legal adviser to cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, said.
The attacker struck next to stalls set up by Pakistan’s two main opposition parties of exiled former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Chaudhry was still several kilometers away when the bomber struck and arrived shortly afterward at the scene, where police ushered his vehicle toward another entrance to the tent. He spoke briefly with lawyers, who said he had offered prayers for the victims, but canceled his speech and left.
“This was an attack on the chief justice,” said Munir Malik, one of Chaudhry’s lawyers.
However, Raja Pervez Ashraf, a leader of Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party, said the attacker had targeted her supporters. “Most of the dead and injured are our supporters,” Ashraf said.
Benazir, who lives in exile in Dubai and London, recently backed Musharraf’s action against the Red Mosque. She told local TV that some people believed the attack was “the militants’ response to the PPP’s firm stand against extremism.”
— Additional input from agencies
