PAKISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 13 at rally for Pakistan judge

At least 13 people have died in a suicide bombing in Islamabad, outside a court where the country's suspended chief justice was due to speak. A suicide bomber killed 13 people on Tuesday (July 17) outside a court in the Pakistani capital Islamabad where the country's suspended chief justice was due to speak, police and officials said. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who has become a symbol of resistance to President Pervez Musharraf's eight-year rule, had not arrived to speak to lawyers at the time of the blast. "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. "We saw body parts. We saw the body of a dead child, of a woman. We could not see any crater in the ground." Families and friends of those injured in the attack waited anxiously for news outside the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences as ambulances arrived carrying body parts and victims from the scene. The blast went off about 30 metres (yards) from a stage, set up in a car park in a market area outside the court, and close to a stall put up by the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, witnesses said. "I felt as if my chair jumped into the air. After the chair jumped, I don't remember what happened," said a woman worker of the PPP. The city's police chief Iftikhar Ahmed said 13 people were killed. About 40 were wounded, including several police. Chaudhry arrived at the site later and joined in prayers for the victims. "The blast occurred right in the middle of the Reception Centre set up by the PPP (Pakistan People's Party). I don't believe any of the women sitting in the centre could have survived," said a lawyer who had been present at the time of the blast. Protesters took to the streets, calling for Musharraf to leave his post. Chaudhry's suspension on March 9 sparked protests by lawyers defending the independence of the judiciary and has snowballed into the most serious challenge to Musharraf's rule since he seized power in a 1999 coup. The Supreme Court is expected to deliver a ruling on the merits of the government case against Chaudhry in coming days. Many analysts say Musharraf's main motive for seeking to dismiss Chaudhry was that he doubted the judge would be supportive in the event of constitutional challenges to the president's election plans. Musharraf wants to be re-elected by sitting national and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for a general election. He also wants to be re-elected while army chief, but is supposed to become a civilian president by the end of the year.

ITN Source | July 18, 2007

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