By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The leader of Pakistan's ruling partysaid on Monday the people behind a suicide bomb attack onpolice that killed 15 people the previous day were trying tocreate chaos and his government would do everything to stopthem.
All but two of those killed in Sunday's attack werepolicemen, who had been guarding Islamists marking theanniversary of an army commando raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque.
The attack will raise questions about the new government'spolicy of trying to end militant violence through negotiationsand increase concern about prospects for the country, anuclear-armed U.S. ally making a transition to civilian rule.
The government is led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in asuicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.
Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over as leaderof the party after his wife's murder, said in a statementSunday's attack was despicable and must be rejected andcondemned by all.
"Pakistan People's Party realises the grave threat thatsuch terrorist activities pose to the country and the PPPgovernment will do everything possible to check the activitiesof such elements and those responsible will be brought tojustice," he said.
The government's top Interior Ministry official, RehmanMalik, said on Sunday eight people had been killed but citypolice chief, Asghar Raza Gardezi, said on Monday 15 people haddied, 13 of them policemen.
Authorities were examining the head of the suspectedbomber, though Gardezi said it was too early to draw anyconclusions and no suspects had been detained.
STOCKS DOWN
The blast happened several hundred metres (yards) fromcity-centre Red Mosque mosque, shortly after a tightly guardedmeeting of Islamists there had ended.
Several thousand Islamists, including members of bannedgroups, had listened to fiery speeches at the meeting to markthe first 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.
A couple of weeks after the siege ended, 13 people, most ofthem policemen, were killed in a suicide bombing similar toSunday's attack.
President Pervez Musharraf, whose power has withered sincehis allies were defeated in a February election and who hasbeen facing calls to step down, said on Friday more radicalmosques would emerge if extremism and militancy were nottackled.
The former army chief ruled out resigning, saying he wasneeded to help politicians avoid an economic meltdown andtackle the militant threat.
The attack had added to worry among stock investors whoseconfidence had already been sapped by political squabbling,insecurity and economic problems, including inflation runningat more than 20 percent.
Stocks have been sliding and the rupee set a new lowagainst the dollar last week.
"Already there's no interest in the market. If anything, itmay have added to the negative sentiment," said Shuja Rizvi,director of broking operations at Capital One Equities Ltd.
The Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index was 0.6 percentlower in early trade.
(Additional reporting by Saher Ahmed; Writing by RobertBirsel; Editing by Alex Richardson)