Bomb attack kills 13 in Islamabad as students reoccupy Red Mosque

Death and violence returned to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, yesterday when a suspected suicide bomber killed at least 11 people and injured more than 40 shortly after police clashed with students who had occupied the notorious Lal Majsid.

At least seven of the dead were police and officials. The bomber exploded the device at a restaurant in the Muzafar Hotel about a quarter of a mile from the religious complex, otherwise known as the Red Mosque, leaving blood and body parts littered across the ground.

Witnesses said they saw shredded police uniforms amid the debris and television footage showed burnt and bleeding victims being carried from the wreckage and piled into ambulances.

Nisar Ahmed, a witness, told Reuters: "It was a very big blast. I saw two bodies flying into air and falling on the road." There was no claim of responsibility, but Kamal Shah, the Interior Minister, said: "Police were the target of the attack."

Students and other protesters had earlier clashed with police at the Red Mosque, location of a week-long siege just three weeks ago. Police fired tear gas and called in armoured vehicles as a cleric was prevented from holding the first Friday prayers at the mosque since the bloody and prolonged battle earlier this month, which left more than 100 dead.

Initially the police had stood back, but as the students grew more noisy they demanded the return of the mosque's conservative, pro-Taliban cleric, Abdul Aziz. Mr Aziz, who was captured trying to escape from the mosque during the siege, is in custody. His brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was among those killed. Some of the students used ladders to climb on to the roof and began throwing red paint on to the walls to restore the mosque's namesake colour.

The students began chanting "Musharraf is a killer" and " Ghazi, your blood will spark revolution" before hundreds of them stormed out of the mosque. As police called in reinforcements, the students prevented a government-appointed cleric from leading the prayers. "I was told everything would be peaceful. I was never interested in taking up this job and after today I will never do it," the cleric, Mohammad Ashfaq, said as he left the mosque with a police escort.

On the steps of the mosque ­ repainted in light colours and reopened by the government in what it claimed would be seen as a gesture of reconciliation ­ Liaqat Baloch, the deputy leader of a coalition of hardline religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), delivered a speech in which he condemned President Pervez Musharraf as a "killer" and predicted there would be an Islamic revolution in Pakistan.

"Maulana Abdul Aziz is still the prayer leader of the mosque. The blood of martyrs will bear fruit. This struggle will reach its destination of an Islamic revolution," he said. "Musharraf is a killer of the constitution. He's a killer of male and female students. The entire world will see him hang."

By last night police said the mosque had been cleared of students and that they had taken into custody about 25 of the demonstrators. Reports also said that police had recovered the torso of a man from the scene of the bomb attack, apparently confirming suspicions that a suicide bomber was responsible.

While President Musharraf may have initially received public support for confronting the extremists ­ who had kidnapped six Chinese workers ­ the violent backlash has created fresh problems for him ahead of elections this year.