ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

.

Kamal Hyder said that the bombing was likely to jeopardise the government’s attempts to engage with the leaders of armed groups carrying out attacks in the country. “There is some evidence to suggest that there are some splinter groups within some militant organisations that are not in favour of any rapprochment with the government,” he said.

---

---

At least 10 police officers have been killed in an explosion in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

The attack on Sunday was near a police station several hundred metres from a rally marking the one-year anniversary of a deadly raid on the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque).

“The whole event at the mosque went smoothly but then the suicide bomber targeted the security,” Rehman Malik, interior ministry chief, told reporters at the scene.

Television footage showed wounded security personnel being taken away and ambulances rushing to the area.

Dead and injured police officers could be seen lying on the ground in pools of blood, their blue uniforms ripped to shreds by the force of the explosion.

“We were playing cricket in a nearby park when we heard a deafening blast. There were several policemen on the ground and me and my friends took them to hospital but they were dead,” Shaqeel Ahmed, a witness, told the AFP news agency.

Security cordon

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that the explosion happened on the edge of the security cordon.

“The venue of the Red Mosque was mostly peaceful, but as evening set and the ceremony was coming to an end, people were moving out of the venue, the attack targeted the police,” he said.

Thousands of police had been deployed across the capital for Sunday’s rally and a tight ring of security was in place around the gathering in front of the mosque.

Barbed wire and picket fences had been put up to prevent vehicles from entering the area while pedestrians had to pass through metal detectors.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, condemned the attack and ordered an inquiry, according to state media.

“Such incidents are against the teachings of Islam and do not serve any purpose,” he was quoted as saying.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blast.

Kamal Hyder said that the bombing was likely to jeopardise the government’s attempts to engage with the leaders of armed groups carrying out attacks in the country.

“There is some evidence to suggest that there are some splinter groups within some militant organisations that are not in favour of any rapprochment with the government,” he said.

Pakistani troops surrounded the mosque last July, clashing with pro-Taliban and alleged al-Qaeda members who were holed up inside before storming the building.

More than 100 people were killed in the military operation.

The level of violence in Pakistan has fallen since last year but attacks are still relatively frequent.

In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish Embassy in Islamabad.

A statement attributed to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.aljazeera

, Voice of a Nation

---

Share This | Print