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ISLAMABAD : A suicide bomber blew himself up on Tuesday at a rally where hundreds had gathered to hear Pakistan's suspended top judge speak, killing 15 people and plunging the country further into crisis.
The attack in Islamabad ramped up the pressure on President Pervez Musharraf on two fronts - his suspension of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and a wave of violence that has followed the storming of the radical Red Mosque.
The powerful blast splattered human remains outside a marquee decorated with balloons ahead of the rally in support of Chaudhry, who was not present at the time. He arrived later and joined lawyers in prayer for the victims.
Hospital officials said 15 people were killed in the bombing, including two women, and 43 injured, five of them police. Many of the injured had their clothes ripped off by the explosion and suffered horrific burns.
"I saw with my own eyes bodies being ripped apart and hands and arms flying through the air," Shafqat Hayat, chief legal advisor to cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, told AFP at the scene.
"It is now clear that it was a suicide attack," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said. He told a private television station he could not rule out that the attack was in revenge for the Red Mosque raid.
The assault on the pro-Taliban mosque compound last week killed 11 soldiers and 75 people inside the compound, mainly militants.
The imposition of a state of emergency was now a "possibility," Azeem added. Such a move, which would delay elections expected later this year, has been mooted several times during a turbulent few months for the country.
Musharraf "condemned in the strongest terms the latest terrorist attack" and urged the public to remain calm and vigilant, state media said.
The site of the blast, around 100 metres from the stage where Chaudhry was to speak, was littered with dozens of shoes as well as the mangled remains of chairs and a motorcycle.
The rally, arranged by local lawyers, was the latest in a series around the country which have drawn tens of thousands of lawyers and opposition activists in support of Chaudhry since his ouster by Musharraf on March 9.
"We deeply regret the loss of life. The lawyers will not be stopped in their peaceful movement," Chaudhry's main lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters as the judge arrived and prayed inside the marquee.
The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Munir Malik, said it was an "attack on the chief justice by the agencies" - the term used by Pakistanis to refer to the country's powerful intelligence agencies.
But there was also speculation that the attack targeted workers from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, as it happened next to a stall for the leading opposition party's workers.
Bhutto, who lives in exile in Dubai and London, recently backed Musharraf's action against the Red Mosque. She told local TV that some people believed the attack was "the militants' response to the PPP's firm stand against extremism."
Panicked survivors helped to put the injured into dozens of ambulances which had rushed with their sirens blaring to the scene in the heart of the capital.
"The injured were crying 'Help us!' We put four people into each ambulance, not only on stretchers but also on the floor," said Malik Shuja, a senior official for the Pakistan Muslim League party of another former premier, Nawaz Sharif. He had bloodstains over his traditional shalwar kameez outfit.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast.
A string of suicide attacks in northwest Pakistan have killed more than 75 people, apparently in retaliation for the storming of the Red Mosque.
A suicide bomber hit a check-post in the tribal region of North Waziristan earlier Tuesday, killing three soldiers and a civilian, the army said.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court is expected to decide within days whether to allow or overturn Chaudhry's suspension on charges of misconduct.
Chaudhry's defenders say he was ousted because he may have stood in the way of Musharraf's bid to get re-elected by the outgoing parliament this year as president while also staying on as army chief, in defiance of the constitution.
Chaudhry has denied the charges and challenged his suspension. - AFP/de
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