A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people amid violent clashes between police and students of religious schools at the official reopening of renovated Lal Masjid for Friday prayer. Seven of the dead were constables of Punjab police.
Death toll may climb as a dozen out of more than 60 injured were said to be in critical condition. It was the second such attack in the federal capital in less than two weeks. Blood and body parts were splattered within an around 100 metres radius. The fronts of several shops and a hotel were damaged partially.
Many ambulances rushed the wounded to various nearby hospitals. A paramedic from Islamabad civic agency said his team picked 27 people in three ambulances. They were either critically injured or dead.
A shopkeeper who claimed to be among few who reached the scene first said many dead bodies were beyond recognition. "They were burnt badly. Their faces were not in a position that someone could recognise them" said Abdullah Niazi, "We assume most of them were policemen because their belts were not damaged." One Business Recorder reporter saw a human head. Officials later said they had found the skull of the suspected suicide bomber.
Eyewitnesses said suicide bomber blew himself up at the footstep of a hotel where dozens of riot police personnel were resting after firing tear gas shells to disperse an angry mob of 'students'.
Top officials, investigating the bombing, said they believed police were the apparent target. "The incident was linked with the Lal Masjid situation," Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said.
Tensions surfaced on Friday when 'students' from various religious schools chased out Moulvi Muhammad Ashfaq, whom the government had appointed as new prayer leader for Lal Masjid. They seized control of the mosque and refused to allow Friday prayer till such time as detained Moulvi Abdul Aziz would be reinstated. He is under house arrest along with his family.
Angry students and unknown people got infuriated when they discovered mutilated human body parts from the debris of demolished Jamia Hafsa. They repainted the building to its original red colour and wrote pro-jihad slogans on the walls. 'Students' also recovered mortar shells and clothes of females and children with blood spots on them. They chanted slogans like 'Musharraf is a dog', 'He is a murderer' and 'Death to his rule'.
Riot police, however, cleared the mosque from stone-throwing 'students' by resorting to heavy tear gas shelling. This was exactly the moment when suicide bombing took place at the city's busiest Aabpara Market, just a mile away from the mosque. A heavy contingent of police and anti-terrorism squad threw a tight cordon around the area. They pushed people back.