ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber killed 19 people, most of them policemen, near a rally marking the anniversary of an army raid on Pakistan’s Red Mosque yesterday, in the latest apparent revenge attack for the storming of the complex.

The powerful explosion happened just after thousands of hard-liners had called for the hanging of President Pervez Musharraf over last year’s bloody siege and storming of the radical mosque, in which 100 people died.

Dozens of dead and injured policemen lay on the ground in pools of blood after the blast, their blue uniforms ripped to shreds by the force of the explosion.

“The whole event at the mosque went smoothly but then the suicide bomber targeted the security,” Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters at the scene.

Senior police officer Masood Ahmed said 15 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 15 policemen dead,” a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“The blast happened 15 minutes after the meeting dispersed. A heavy contingent of police was at a main crossing several hundred meters 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 students frantically running toward the scene and ambulances bringing the wounded to hospitals.

“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 Ahmed told AFP.

Prime Minister Yousaf 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-Qaeda and Taleban militants, which has left more than 1,000 people dead.

Government forces besieged the mosque on July 3, 2007 after the mosque launched a vigilante campaign in the capital and kidnapped several Chinese nationals.

Earlier yesterday, madrasa students from across the country thronged outside the Red Mosque amid tight security by thousands of police who erected barbed wire barricades and spot-searched individuals.

A member of the committee, which organized the protest said none of the Islamist leaders involved in the protest was killed or injured in the blast.

In fiery speeches, hard-liners condemned the 2007 military operation against the mosque, blaming Musharraf for the carnage which they claimed was carried out at the request of the United States.

“Musharraf, then Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, and others who were responsible for the bloodbath should be tried and hanged publicly,” Idrees Haqqani, one of the speakers, said as the crowd pumped the air with their hands. The speakers called for jihad (holy war) against “infidel” including US and NATO troops fighting militants in Afghanistan.

Speakers also threatened unspecified action if the Red Mosque’s jailed leader, Abdul Aziz — who was caught fleeing in a woman’s burqa on the second day of the siege — was not released.

Pakistan’s new government signed a peace deal with Taleban militants near the Afghan border after winning February elections, but went ahead in the past week with an operation against radicals near the northwest city of Peshawar.

Islamabad has been under mounting pressure from Washington to live up to its partnership in the US-led “war on terror” and crack down on extremist fighters with bases in Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas.

A statement issued after the meeting on behalf of Humaira Rashid Ghazi, wife of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who died during the operation last year, said a committee called “Markaz-e-Ghazi” would be set up to look after the Red Mosque affairs and families affected by the operation.

— With input from agencies