ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful suicide explosion killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others yesterday evening, shortly after a large protest rally marking the one-year anniversary of the government forces' raid on a radical mosque. Most of the dead were police officers.
The blast, which appeared to have targeted the security forces, poses a sharp new challenge to Pakistan's coalition government, which has been struggling in its efforts to formulate a policy for dealing with Islamic militants.
The explosion occurred just before 8 p.m. local time at a police post close to a popular market and only a few blocks from the Red Mosque, which last summer became a hotbed of militant activity in the heart of the capital. President Pervez Musharraf, who at the time was also the leader of Pakistan's military, sent in commandos to capture the mosque, a confrontation that left more than 100 people dead.
The capital had been tense in anticipation of the anniversary. Preachers at the Red Mosque have employed fiery anti-government rhetoric in recent days. The mosque's supporters, including female students in all-enveloping black burkas, staged rallies adjacent to the site for the past several weeks.
Much of the fury was directed at Musharraf, who, although still president, wields much less authority now that he has given up his military post and his political opponents control the government. The mosque's supporters, however, have harshly criticized the country's new administration, saying it should have allowed the reopening of a madrassa, or religious seminary, that became the focal point of last summer's confrontation.
Musharraf's government ordered the attack on the mosque after seminary students armed themselves and began sending vigilante vice squads out into the city, seeking to enforce Taliban-style edicts. Many moderate Pakistanis had wanted the government to deal with the radicals but were dismayed when the scope and force of the raid led to a series of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities last year that causedhundreds of casualties.
Authorities described yesterday's blast as a suicide bombing, but it was not clear immediately whether the bomber arrived on foot or by some other means. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, and local officials quoted a mosque spokesman, Mohammed Amir Siddiq, as condemning the attack.
