The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

A suicide bomber killed 19 people Sunday in an attack on police guarding an Islamist rally to mark the anniversary of an army raid on the radical Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, officials said.

In the latest apparent act of revenge for the bloody storming of the mosque, the attacker blew himself up in a crowd of policemen just after thousands of hardliners demanded the public hanging of President Pervez Musharraf.

The operation to clear the mosque a year ago left 100 people dead, and unleashed a wave of suicide attacks that pushed the newly-elected government into entering peace talks with Taliban militants.

Dozens of dead and injured policemen lay in pools of blood after Sunday's blast, their blue uniforms ripped to shreds, an AFP photographer said. Batons, helmets and riot shields were scattered on the ground.

"The whole event at the mosque went smoothly but then the suicide bomber targeted the security forces," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters at the scene.

Musharraf condemned the blast and reiterated the government's "commitment to root-out terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.

The US-backed leader, whose allies were defeated in elections in February, urged the new government on Friday to do more to combat militancy, warning that otherwise there would be "Red Mosques everywhere".

A senior police official and a senior security official both told AFP that at least 14 policemen and a civilian were killed in the bombing.

The government however gave lower figures, with Information Minister Sherry Rehman saying that at least 12 policemen were known to have died.

"A young man walked into the police contingent and apparently blew himself up," the senior security official said on condition of anonymity.

"The blast happened 15 minutes after the meeting dispersed. A heavy contingent of police was at a main crossing several hundred metres from the mosque and they were targeted in the attack," the official added.

Television footage showed bearded students frantically running towards the scene and ambulances bringing the wounded to hospitals.

"We were playing cricket in a nearby park when we heard a deafening blast. There were several policemen on the ground and me and my friends took them to hospital but they were dead," witness Shaqeel Ahmed told AFP.