By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least sixpeople and wounded 19 in an attack on Tuesday on a Pakistannaval college in the eastern city of Lahore, officials said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a newsconference that a mini-bus entered the college when a suicidebomber following closely behind blew up his vehicle.
The bomber killed himself and four others in the initialattack, navy officials said, but two more people died insecondary explosions that followed.
"I saw a fully charred body," a Reuters photographer at thescene said. "A black cloud of smoke was rising from the sceneas I reached there."
It was the fourth suicide attack in Pakistan in five days,further unsettling a country already reeling from a bombcampaign waged by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and theTaliban.
Over 500 people have been killed in related violence sincethe start of the year, stoking fears over the deterioratingsecurity situation in the nuclear-armed state.
Tackling the violence will provide a tough test for theincoming government following elections two weeks ago which sawno clear winner emerge, leading to coalition talks betweenvarious parties mostly hostile to President Pervez Musharraf.
Television pictures showed damaged vehicles near the bentand buckled gates of the college. Emergency vehicles were seenrushing in and out of the premises.
Lahore, the capital of Punjab province and about 290 kms,southeast of the capital, has rarely been targeted before,although a suicide bomber killed 19 people, mostly police, inan attack near the High Court in January.
Last week a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi killed themilitary's top medical officer, Lieutenant-General MushtaqAhmed Baig, making him the most senior military officer to diein the violence to date.
Tuesday's blast in the country's cultural capital andpolitical nerve centre coincided with a visit by U.S. JointChiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen for talks withPakistan's military leadership and President Pervez Musharraf.
Mullen's visit aimed at reinforcing the militaryrelationship with Pakistan, according to embassy spokeswomanElizabeth Colton.
The West shudders at the thought of Pakistan sliding intochaos. Sections of the Western media have depicted Pakistan asthe most dangerous country in the world.
Many Pakistanis believe there is some grand conspiracy totake away Pakistan's nuclear weapons, but realisation of thescale of the internal threat is dawning.
The deteriorating law and order situation put pressure on astock market that remains the best performer in Asia this year,although it is considered difficult and illiquid by manyinvestors.
The index shed 0.5 percent on Tuesday, though it is up over3 percent since the February 18 parliamentary elections andover 5.25 percent this year.
Elsewhere in Pakistan on Tuesday, five people includingfour militants were killed in a gunbattle with police near thetown of Lakki Marwat in the northwest, police said. The deadincluded two Uzbek and two local militants.
The shootout, near the town where three police were killedby a roadside bomb on Friday, broke out after militantskidnapped a local councillor and two colleagues.
(Reporting by Augustine Anthony and Zeeshan Haider; Writingby David Fox; Editing by Jerry Norton)
(For a Reuters blog about Pakistan please seehttp://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan )
