Twenty four Pakistan soldiers killed in suicide attack

Tension builds up after Red Mosque raid

ISLAMABAD, Saturday (AFP) - A suicide bomber Saturday killed 24 troops after this week's deadly army raid on a hardline mosque, as Pakistan's embattled military leader also faced pressure from pro-democracy protesters. The attacker rammed an explosives-packed car into a paramilitary convoy in North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border, top military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

A Pakistani masked tribal militant with assault rifle smashes an audio player seized in a raid at a music market in Khar, the main town of Pakistani tribal region Bajur along Afghan border, on Friday, . A group of 50 masked tribal Islamic militants, who call themselves “Mujahedin” or Islamic warriors smashed video cassettes confiscated from local music shops and demanded an end to vice and adherence to strict Islamic law. AP

More than two dozen frontier constabulary troops were wounded in the blast, Arshad said. The death toll rose through the day as some of the injured died and more bodies were found in what he called the “badly mangled wreckage.”

The deaths came a day after thousands of Islamic protesters burnt effigies of Musharraf and a puppet of “Uncle Sam,” the personification of the United States, which sees the Pakistani president as a key ally in its “war on terror.”

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, also faced heat from another quarter -- pro-democracy activists who staged a mass rally in Lahore supporting the country's ousted chief judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Chaudhry has become a focal point of anti-Musharraf resistance, and crowds of well-wishers mobbed the motorcade taking him past a 6,000-strong police line from the airport to the centre of the Punjab provincial capital.

Musharraf in March ousted Chaudhry in a move that, critics say, aimed to pave the way for the president to stay in power in his dual role as army chief and head of state, despite constitutional hurdles. Chaudhry's supporters -- throwing flower petals and shouting “Go Musharraf, go!” and “We want an independent judiciary” -- reduced the convoy's pace to a crawl, likely delaying his scheduled speech till the early morning.

Security was tight at the charged event. In May, more than 40 people were killed in clashes between rival political factions when Chaudhry tried to address a meeting in the port city of Karachi.

“We are leaving nothing to chance,” said Lahore police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal, adding that metal detectors had been installed at the venue of Chaudhry's address, a local court building, and police stationed on rooftops.

The Lahore rally echoed similar protests which had presented the biggest challenge to Musharraf's eight-year rule until last week's Red Mosque raid, which shook the usually quiet capital Islamabad.

The dramatic siege and final assault -- which killed 86 people, mostly armed militants who had demanded the imposition of Islamic law -- has sharply heightened tensions in the world's second-largest Muslim nation. Qazi Hussain, head of the six-party Islamic alliance the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, said Saturday he would resign from parliament to protest the army raid and an ongoing army build-up in border regions.

Since the raid, Musharraf, under international pressure to uproot the militants, has sent thousands of extra troops to northwestern border areas that have become hideouts for Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents.“Troops have been deployed in Swat district and in Dera Ismail Khan following instructions by President Musharraf to beef up security to counter the threat of extremist forces in the region,” a military official said.

In tribal North Waziristan, where three more soldiers were wounded in attacks Saturday, a pro-Taliban militant commander Abdullah Farhad threatened more attacks if government forces do not abandon new road blocks by Sunday.“If the government troops do not vacate the checkposts by July 15, we will end the existing peace agreement with the government and launch a guerrilla war,” he told AFP by phone from an unknown location.

The government in Sepember signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders in the region -- a deal heavily criticised by Western allies and Afghanistan -- in return for assurances they would hunt down foreign militants. New US intelligence reports suggest Al-Qaeda is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and plotting new attacks, the Washington Post said last week.