A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens outside an Islamabad police station yesterday, as thousands of Islamists marked the one-year anniversary of a bloody military siege of the city's Red Mosque.

The blast - the deadliest in the city for almost a year - again brought Pakistan’s battle against militancy, mainly staged in the northwest tribal regions near Afghanistan, home to the usually tranquil capital.

The attacker detonated his explosives at an intersection near a police station and Islamabad’s Melody Market shopping centre, where over 20 police officers were standing by in case of trouble at the Red Mosque rally less than half a mile away.

Afterwards, the road was strewn with blood, glass, police riot gear and body parts. Naeem Iqbal, a police spokesman, said at least 15 people died, most of them officers.

The bombing occurred just minutes after hardliners at the radical, pro-Taliban mosque demanded the public hanging of President Pervez Musharraf and the imposition of Islamic law. It was not clear today if the events were linked, and a mosque official condemned the attack.

However the blast was eerily reminiscent of a suicide attack that killed 13 people and wounded 71 on July 27 last year - the day the Red Mosque first reopened after the military crackdown. That explosion was at a restaurant crowded by police guarding the reopening of the mosque, and several of those killed were officers. Yesterday's attack appeared to be Islamabad’s deadliest since then

It followed threats of revenge from Pakistani Taliban leaders enraged by a recent paramilitary operation against insurgents in the tribal northwest. A Taliban spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said that based on witness accounts, the attacker was a man in his mid-30s who ran into the crowd of police. Police had found the "upper part" of the bomber's body, he added.

Mr Malik said the nation had to take action against those “destabilizing our country". “We have to take them out from our ranks,” he said. “We have to combat them.”

Imtiaz Khan, the casualty medical officer at Federal Government Services Hospital, said at least 36 wounded people were admitted there, nearly all security officials.

He said two of those brought in had since died, while 12 were in critical condition.

Violence has fallen in Pakistan since last year, when the country was wracked by 60 suicide attacks, many of them in the wake of the eight-day siege of the Red Mosque. However resentment still simmers in some quarters over the country's alliance with the United States in the fight against terrorism.

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