Explosion near Musharraf’s office

RAWALPINDI – Police blocked a suicide bomber who blew himself up near the office of President General Pervez Musharraf, killing seven people, officials said.

The blast will likely feed fears for the country’s stability just as it prepares for crucial parliamentary elections and faces a growing threat from Islamic militants. The man had walked up to a checkpoint in the city of Rawalpindi just a half-kilometre from Army House.Musharraf was safely inside at the time, his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.Police said three of their officers and four civilians were killed along with the lone assailant.Fourteen policemen and four civilians were wounded, he said.”When police officers asked him to halt, the attacker got panicked.And as the police tried to capture him, he blew himself up,” city police chief Saud Aziz told The Associated Press.”Our officers died to protect the citizens of Pakistan.”The attack left the area around the checkpoint, which guards a road leading to Army House and the residences of several top generals, strewn with human flesh and torn clothing.An Associated Press photographer saw emergency workers remove the body of an elderly man killed as he was riding by on a bicycle.Police said women and children aboard a passing minibus were also among the dead and wounded.Television footage showed schoolbags abandoned on the seats of the vehicle, whose windows were blown out.Investigators cordoned off the area to retrieve evidence.A policeman climbed an overhanging tree to dislodge part of the bomber’s severed head.Fortified army posts at the checkpoint and the nearby gate to the residence of General Tariq Majid, the army’s No.3 commander, were scarred with shrapnel and spattered with blood.While there was no claim of responsibility, Pakistan has been rocked by a string of suicide bombings mostly blamed on Islamic extremists.An attack on the homecoming parade of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on October 18 in the southern city of Karachi killed more than 140 people.In Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital Islamabad, two blasts on September 4 killed 25 people and wounded more than 60, many of them on a Defence Ministry bus.Pakistan has suffered a surge in suicide attacks since Musharraf’s decision in July to crack down on militants tightening their grip on areas along the Afghan frontier.US officials warn the area has become a haven for Taliban militants fighting in Afghanistan and that al Qaeda may be using it to plot fresh attacks on the West.Nampa-APThe man had walked up to a checkpoint in the city of Rawalpindi just a half-kilometre from Army House.Musharraf was safely inside at the time, his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.Police said three of their officers and four civilians were killed along with the lone assailant.Fourteen policemen and four civilians were wounded, he said.”When police officers asked him to halt, the attacker got panicked.And as the police tried to capture him, he blew himself up,” city police chief Saud Aziz told The Associated Press.”Our officers died to protect the citizens of Pakistan.”The attack left the area around the checkpoint, which guards a road leading to Army House and the residences of several top generals, strewn with human flesh and torn clothing.An Associated Press photographer saw emergency workers remove the body of an elderly man killed as he was riding by on a bicycle.Police said women and children aboard a passing minibus were also among the dead and wounded.Television footage showed schoolbags abandoned on the seats of the vehicle, whose windows were blown out.Investigators cordoned off the area to retrieve evidence.A policeman climbed an overhanging tree to dislodge part of the bomber’s severed head.Fortified army posts at the checkpoint and the nearby gate to the residence of General Tariq Majid, the army’s No.3 commander, were scarred with shrapnel and spattered with blood.While there was no claim of responsibility, Pakistan has been rocked by a string of suicide bombings mostly blamed on Islamic extremists.An attack on the homecoming parade of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on October 18 in the southern city of Karachi killed more than 140 people.In Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital Islamabad, two blasts on September 4 killed 25 people and wounded more than 60, many of them on a Defence Ministry bus.Pakistan has suffered a surge in suicide attacks since Musharraf’s decision in July to crack down on militants tightening their grip on areas along the Afghan frontier.US officials warn the area has become a haven for Taliban militants fighting in Afghanistan and that al Qaeda may be using it to plot fresh attacks on the West.Nampa-AP