Deadly Suicide Blast Targets Police At Pakistan Rally
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) – A suicide attacker killed at least eight people Sunday, including Pakistani police officers who were stationed near a rally protesting last year’s raid at the Red Mosque, Pakistan’s acting interior minister said.
A police official said earlier that the blast killed 10 police officers.
Video showed the bodies of policemen lying on the side of the road, while other seriously injured police officers and civilians were loaded onto stretchers and taken to waiting ambulances.
The attacker struck the police position on a roundabout around 8 p.m., near the rally and a marketplace.
The police were stationed at the outermost security perimeter, part of a protection cordon set up by the government for Sunday’s rally, according to Islamabad police Inspector General Asghar Gardezi.
It’s unclear if the suicide attacker was on foot or in a vehicle.
Pakistan’s acting Interior Minister Rehman Malik said about 12,000 people attended Sunday’s rally, which marked the first anniversary of government forces storming Islamabad’s Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid.
Malik, who went to the blast site shortly after the attack, said there were no lapses in security at Sunday’s rally. He said eight people were killed and 22 were wounded.
Last year’s July 10 raid — ordered by President Pervez Musharraf, who was Pakistan’s army chief at the time — ended a weeklong bloody standoff between military forces and Islamic extremists.
Nearly 100 people died when the security forces stormed the mosque. Most were radical students holed up inside, but the deaths included some women and children as well.
The raid was intended to rout Islamic extremists who hoped to establish a Taliban-style rule across the capital.
In retaliation, suicide bombers launched several strikes targeting civilians, police and security forces.
The raid led to the collapse of a cease-fire between Musharraf’s government and tribal leaders in the lawless territories along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
The 2006 truce was blamed for establishing a safe haven for Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan’s tribal regions.
Source — CNN