By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least one person at a bank in Islamabad Monday, a police official said, in a rare attack on the Pakistani capital that will step up pressure on the army to reassert itself after a series of setbacks.
Pakistan's Taliban movement often stages suicide bombings but the last serious attack in Islamabad was in December 2009.
"The bomber walked into the bank and blew himself up when the security guard tried to search him," witness Hammad Ahmad told Reuters. The guard died and three people were wounded, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
But the attack bore all the hallmarks of the Pakistani Taliban, an al Qaeda-linked group that has proven resilient in the face of several army offensives against its strongholds.
The explosion left blood beside shards of glass and cables ripped from walls and the ceiling. Body parts were scattered across the debris. People outside the bank looked dazed.
The Taliban have staged several large-scale attacks to avenge the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a Pakistani town on May 2. They have targeted paramilitary cadets, a naval base and a U.S. consulate convoy.
The army's image has been tarnished since bin Laden's death on which it was kept in the dark by the United States.
Then a handful of militants took over the naval base in Karachi. A video which showed paramilitary Rangers fatally shooting an apparently unarmed man made big headlines, dealing another blow to the army's image.
MILITANTS FLEX MUSCLES
"The militants are creating more uncertainty and violence, and taking advantage of an already fragile situation," said security analyst Imtiaz Gul.
"They have been systematically targeting symbols of a functional state, such as political targets, military targets, -- so they are trying to unbalance the state."
Intensified U.S. drone aircraft missile strikes in South Waziristan have pressured militants. But they have hit back.
Monday, a roadside bomb planted by suspected militants hit a military convoy in that tribal area on the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and wounding four, officials said.
A bomb planted on a bicycle wounded two people in the southwestern city of Quetta, intelligence officials said.
"The militants are reasserting themselves and there has been this string of attacks, a campaign of revenge attacks unleashed in the major urban centres," said Abdul Basit, researcher at the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
"Militants are trying to show their muscle now - that they have easy access to urban centres. They have collaborators and they have demonstrated their capability to strike anywhere against any target."
The Taliban have staged suicide bombings across Pakistan. But they have stayed away from the capital in recent years.
The last serious attack in Islamabad was in December 2009, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a naval headquarters, killing a guard and wounding two navy personnel.
Militants have not specifically attacked banks or other economic institutions in the past, but bombs have exploded in commercial areas.
Further attacks on those types of targets could scare away more foreign investors needed for an economy propped up by an $11 billion (6.7 billion pounds) International Monetary Fund rescue package.
(Writing by Michael Georgy; Additional reporting by Rebecca Conway and Augustine Anthony; Editing by Nick Macfie)
