Pakistan probes security lapse after suicide attack

Islamabad: A suicide bomb attack in a restaurant near Islamabad's Red Mosque complex yesterday killed at least 13 people, a majority of them police, and wounded 50 others, chief commissioner Khalid Parvez said.

Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said the dead included eight policemen. Shah said the mosque had been closed and will remain so until "we are sure that the security situation is under full control".

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said investigators had also recovered a head believed to be that of the attacker. "We strongly believe that the head is of the suicide bomber," he said.

Militants pour in

Cheema said the government had also received intelligence information about a possible suicide bombing in Aabpara, the market area where the hotel is located. "There will be an inquiry for the security lapse," he said.

Police said they had arrested around half a dozen people in connection with the mosque fracas.

Earlier, militants re-occupied the mosque, which was a battleground earlier this month, after it reopened for the first time, but the prayers could not be performed as the occupants refused to allow the government-appointed imam to lead them.

The followers of former prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz started chanting slogans and yelling abuse when the new prayer leader Maulana Ashfaq started his address to the audience.

The security officials rushed to the scene, provided cover to Maulana Ashfaq and drove him away.

Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators and arrested six people.