Suicide attack kills 19 near Islamabad's Red Mosque (3rd Roundup)

Jul 6, 2008, 18:53 GMT

Foreign journalists photograph the belongings of the policemen who were killed in a suicide bomb attack Islamabad, Pakistan 06 July 2008. EPA/T. MUGHAL

Islamabad - At least 19 people, including 15 policemen, were killed Sunday in a suicide attack that targeted a group of law enforcers near a rally of hardline Islamists marking the anniversary of the storming of the notorious Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, officials said.

'It was a targeted attack at security forces carried out by a suicide bomber,' Islamabad's deputy commissioner Rana Abdul Jabbar said.

Rao Mohammad Iqbal, police Chief of the nearby Rawalpindi city, told reporters that 19 people died while more than 40 were injured. Fifteen of those were policemen.

The blast occurred shortly after thousands of Islamists concluded the rally that commemorated the first anniversary of the deadly July 10, 2007 'Operation Silence' against the heavily armed extremists entrenched in the mosque.

Some three dozen police were deployed a few hundred metres from the mosque and close to a police station.

'A young man walked from behind the bushes and blew himself up as he approached the group of policemen,' a security official said.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned Sunday's attack.

'Such incidents were against the teachings of Islam and did not serve any purpose,' Gilani said.

Earlier some 12,000 hardline Islamists, mostly students from Islamic seminaries, gathered outside the Red Mosque and chanted 'God is great' and 'We want martyrdom.'

The speakers blasted President Pervez Musharraf for ordering last year's operation.

'The Pharaoh of the age (Musharraf) killed thousands of our children whose only crime was that they were learning Koran,' said Qazi Nisar, a radical cleric whose followers blocked the highway that connects Pakistan and China across the Korakoram Mountains for several days during last year's standoff.

'We will never forgive him for his atrocities against these innocent people,' he added.

Security forces surrounded the mosque on July 3, 2007 following clashes between the police and the seminary students, who had abducted several women alleging them to be prostitutes and pressured music shop owners to give up the trade under an 'anti-vice' campaign.

A week later military commandos stormed the mosque in a pre-dawn operation. According to the government 100 people, including 12 soldiers, were killed in the action. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the younger of two radical brother clerics leading the mosque, also died while fighting the troops.

The elder brother, Abdul Aziz, was arrested a few days before the final assault while trying to flee disguised as a woman. He remains in police custody.

Supporters of the Red Mosque extremists claim the real death toll was much higher, possibly in thousands.

The operation is considered a significant incident in the recent history of Islamic militancy in Pakistan, as it was followed by a series of suicide attacks on security forces that killed more than 3,000 people during the past year.

Though backed by Pakistani liberals, the mosque action remained highly unpopular among the general public and became one of the reasons for the defeat of Musharraf's political allies in February 18 elections.

Emotions are still running high a year later.

'Ghazi has won respect and honour by sacrificing his life for Islam, but his killers will continue hiding from people until the day of judgement,' speaker Maulana Azizur Rehman told the rally.

He demanded the immediate release of Abdul Aziz and the rebuilding of the Islamic seminary, Jamia Hafsa, demolished by the government after the operation.

Around 4,000 policemen were deployed to guard the venue for the rally, named the 'Red Mosque Martyr Conference.'

The roads leading to the mosque were blocked with barbed wire. Four walkthrough gates were installed and the participants were being checked with metal detectors.