20 killed in Pakistan suicide blast

A suicide bomber blew himself up among police guards deployed in front of a court in eastern Pakistan ahead of a planned protest by lawyers today, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said.

A photographer at the scene of the attack outside Lahore High Court saw more than 25 dead and wounded people, including police and civilians.

“It was a suicide attack,” Lahore police chief Malik Iqbal told Dawn News TV. He said police were “definitely” targeted.

Lahore chief of police operations Aftab Cheema said the bomber arrived on a motorbike, parked it near the police guards before running up to the barrier they were manning and blowing himself up.

He said 19 policemen and one civilian was killed.

Another police official Mohammed Masood said more than 50 others were wounded, including civilian passers-by.

The police were deployed in front of the court ahead of planned anti-government protest by lawyers. Lahore is the main city in Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab.

TV footage showed at least four victims lying motionless on the ground close to a destroyed motorbike and a piece of smoking debris. Ambulance workers loaded the bleeding bodies on to stretchers as police sirens wailed in the background. Some of the victims were in black and brown police uniforms.

Police with guns and riot gear cordoned off the area and appealed to bystanders to rush to hospitals to donate blood instead of crowding the scene and hindering the rescue work.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which will deepen Pakistan’s turmoil ahead of February 18 parliamentary elections. Suspicion will likely fall on Islamic militants.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, has blamed two Taliban commanders linked to al-Qaida for a wave of about 20 suicide attacks in the past three months, mostly targeting the security forces.

Today’s blast comes two weeks after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed along with 20 others in a suicide attack after addressing an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, also in Punjab.