Three policemen killed as rebels target anti-terror judge

Lahore: An anti-terrorism court judge was injured and three policemen were killed when a remote-controlled bomb attached to a bicycle exploded in the central Pakistani city of Multan yesterday, police said.

Judge Bashir Ahmad Bhatti was crossing a flyover, around 100 metres from his court, along with his two guards and a driver when the bomb went off, Multan regional police officer Mirza Mohammad Ali said.

Two police gunmen died on the spot and the judge, six policemen and two bystanders were injured by the high-intensity bomb blast. A wounded policeman later died at the state-owned Nashtar Hospital, Multan. Three of the injured are in a critical state, a doctor, said.

Those killed have been identified as Mohammad Iqbal, Mohammad Ijjaz and Munir.

A regional police officer said Bhatti had heard a sectarian terrorism case and was due to deliver the verdict.

The blast wrecked the front end of a white car believed to be the judge's and left blood stains on the seats and on the ground, an AFP reporter said from the scene of the attack. A police van was almost destroyed.

High intensity

"It was a locally made high-intensity device detonated by remote control," a bomb disposal officer said.

Police cordoned off the scene and bomb disposal squad officers collected evidence and fragments of the bomb. The bomb was thought to have been detonated by remote control, regional police chief Mohammad Ali said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ali said the blast could be linked to a recent explosion killing three militants when a powerful bomb they were carrying on a bicycle accidentally went off.

The men from a local seminary were apparently targeting the funeral services for a policeman or the police guarding a cattle market in Cheecha Watni, a town about 75km east of Multan.

Nearly two weeks ago a suicide bomber blew himself up in a packed courtroom in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing 15 people including the city's senior civil judge.

The bomb was thought to have been detonated by remote control, regional police chief Mohammad Ali said. Pakistan has been rocked by a series of terror attacks this year blamed on pro-Taliban militants seeking revenge for an airstrike on an alleged Al Qaida compound in a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.