By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed more than 10people and wounded 22 in an attack on police who had beenguarding Islamists marking the anniversary of an army commandoraid on the Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, police said.
Senior police official Kamran Adil said his men were thetarget and most of the more than 10 victims were police.
The government's top Interior Ministry official, RehmanMalik, told reporters at the scene the bomb had been caused bya suicide bomber and eight people had been killed and 22wounded.
The blast happened several hundred metres (yards) from themosque, shortly after a tightly guarded meeting of Islamiststhere had ended.
Worshippers could be seen streaming out of the mosque afterthe explosion. Sirens were heard across the city as ambulancesraced towards the scene on what had been a quiet evening.
"Police were going back to their stations when ithappened," said Adil. "We picked up more than 10 bodies, thereare also many wounded, most of them police. The primary targetwas our men."
Body parts, pools of blood and police caps littered theroad.
Interior Ministry chief Malik said the bomber was a man inhis mid-thirties with a small beard.
"We have found the upper part of the suicide bomber," hetold Geo Television.
Earlier on Sunday, several thousand Islamists listened tofiery speeches at a protest meeting at the mosque to mark thefirst anniversary of the army raid on the complex.
More than 100 people were killed when commandos stormed theRed Mosque complex, which included a madrasa or Islamicseminary, on July 10 last year, after a week-long siege thatbegan when gunmen from the mosque clashed with police outside.
"JIHAD"
Speakers told the crowd, most of them men, that U.S. allyPresident Pervez Musharraf was to blame for the bloodshed lastyear.
"Pervez Musharraf, you thought you could crush the Islamicmovement by attacking the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), but we aretelling you, you have failed," Shah Abdul Aziz, a cleric andformer member of the parliament, told the crowd.
"It was done at the behest of America and Bush. But I wantto tell America jihad will continue, it will never stop," hesaid.
The protesters, most of them religious students, shouted"al jihad", or holy war, in response.
The mosque's hardline clerics and supporters waged aviolent campaign to enforce Taliban-style rule, kidnappingwomen they accused of prostitution and some policemen, andstorming music and video shops and beauty parlours.
They also accumulated weapons at the complex in the heartof the capital and battled security forces for days, rejectingappeals to surrender, after the siege began.
The assault unleashed a wave of suicide attacks across thecountry in which hundreds of people were killed, includingformer prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Security around the mosque was tight on Sunday with policeroad blocks and coils of barbed wire blocking across main roadsand side lanes.
People going to the rally had to pass through metaldetectors and many bearded Islamists were frisked.
"The killers of innocent male and female students do notdeserve any mercy," read a banner strung up on the main roadoutside the mosque.
Speakers warned the new government formed after Februaryelections against any crackdown on religious schools and saidany such attempts would be forcefully resisted.
They also demanded that the government release the mosque'sjailed cleric, Abdul Aziz, and rebuild a women's madrasa in thecomplex, that was levelled after the raid.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by RobertBirsel; Editing by Dominic Evans)
