PAKISTAN: Bomb kills at least 12 in Islamabad

At least 13 people die in an apparent suicide bombing in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, outside a court where the country's suspended chief justice was due to speak. An apparent suicide bomb attack killed 13 people outside a court in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday (July 17). The blast took place close to a court where the country's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was due to speak. A stage had been set up just thirty yards away in a car park. But witnesses say Chaudhry had not arrived at the time of the explosion which happened at a stall set up by the opposition Pakistan People's Party of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Police think the blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber. Witnesses told local television they saw a man pull up on a motorcycle and blow himself up. Clothing and body parts were scattered and blood splattered on the ground at the scene. The remains of a motorcycle were also visible. "It was quite dark so we could not see clearly. There was smoke everywhere," said Jamshed, a reporter for a local daily who was there to cover the Chief Justice's address. "When we reached the spot, we saw body parts. We saw the body of a dead child, of a woman. We could not see any crater in the ground nor any cracks like you would normally see in the case of a planted bomb," he continued. President Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Chaudhry on March 9 after drawing up a set of accusations against him. The suspension sparked protests by lawyers defending the independence of the judiciary and opposition parties seeking an end to army chief Musharraf's 8-year rule. Pakistan has seen a surge in violence since government forces stormed Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, compound last week ending a week-long siege and killing 75 supporters of hardline clerics.

ITN Source | July 18, 2007

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