NYT : Suicide Bomber Kills 14 at Rally

Suicide Bomber Kills 14 at Rally

By SALMAN MASOOD | July 18, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 17 — A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb near an outdoor stage where the country’s suspended chief justice was to address members of Pakistan’s opposition parties on Tuesday evening, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 40, according to the police.

The attack occurred around 8:30 p.m. 100 yards from where the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was to speak to a crowd about half an hour later. Mr. Chaudhry’s convoy was several miles away when the bomber struck.

Most of the dead and wounded belonged to the Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ten were in critical condition, according to hospital sources. Four policemen were among those wounded. The blast thrust the capital into a new round of disorder less than a week after a violent siege at a hard-line mosque and seminary that has enraged radical Islamists.

There was no claim of responsibility, though speculation was rampant. It was possible that the bombing was part of the backlash from the siege, aimed this time at Ms. Bhutto’s supporters because she had endorsed it.

But many pointed a finger at the Pakistani intelligence agencies. “It was a direct attack on the chief justice by the agencies,” said Munir A. Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a member of Mr. Chaudhry’s legal team. “They wanted to get rid of him.”

Mr. Chaudhry, who was dismissed by the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in March on charges of misconduct, has become a rallying point for Pakistanis clamoring for an end to military rule. Mr. Chaudhry has appealed his ouster, and a court decision on his fate is expected soon.

Ms. Bhutto, the country’s main opposition leader, who lives abroad, said she believed that her party’s workers were the target of “hidden hands” seeking to create a pretext for General Musharraf to impose emergency rule.

“Our point of view is that imposition of emergency will further alienate moderate forces,” Ms. Bhutto said in an interview with Geo TV monitored by Reuters.

Mr. Malik, the lawyer for Mr. Chaudhry, said organizers of the rally were told that the chief justice would arrive at the site at exactly 8:30 p.m. “It was a timed device,” he said.

An intelligence official at the site said that there seemed to be no crater left by the bomb, and that it was the work of a suicide bomber.

Pakistani police officials said the bomber might have been frustrated by the strict security at the entrance to the site and therefore detonated himself near the tents of the political workers, where a throng had gathered and security was lax.

The bomb was powerful enough to shatter the windows of adjacent buildings. Shards of glass and pieces of flesh were scattered over nearby pavement. Pools of blood lay on the asphalt.

“People ran for cover after the blast, fearing another bomb,” said Imtiaz Ali, 29. Mr. Ali said he was standing about 20 feet away and saw shreds of clothing thrown in the air. “I saw a dead body without a head and legs. Another body, just a torso, was lying nearby.”

The police cordoned off the area and security was put on high alert in the city after the blast. The wounded were ferried to hospitals.

Mr. Chaudhry later reached the site but did not make a speech and sat somberly for a few minutes. Mr. Malik told the hundreds of lawyers seated in front of the stage that Mr. Chaudhry had been urged to cancel his visit after the news of the blast. “We requested him not to go,” Mr. Malik said. “But he said, ‘I am not a coward. I will go.’ ”

For the last several months, Mr. Chaudhry’s addresses have drawn large crowds, and turned into rallies to vent frustration with more than seven years of military rule.

His case was the greatest challenge to General Musharraf’s rule until the uprising at the Red Mosque. The violent confrontations that resulted between troops and militants holed up inside the compound ended Wednesday with at least 102 dead, including 11 members of security forces.

Since then, about 100 people, most police officers and soldiers, have been killed by bombs and shootings in parts of North-West Frontier Province, where Taliban influence has spread from adjacent tribal areas.

In another attack on Tuesday, three soldiers and a passer-by were killed and two others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in Mirali, in North Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal region on the border with Afghanistan.

The government dispatched a team of tribal elders on Monday to meet with leaders of militant groups in North Waziristan in an effort to salvage a peace deal with the government that unraveled after the mosque battle.

The agreement was the latest in a series of sometimes contradictory steps taken by the government to restore order in the tribal areas, where civilian administration has steadily eroded in recent years.

Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar.