A suicide bombing at a rally for the suspended chief justice of Pakistan killed at least 15 people and wounded scores of others last night as a wave of violence rocked the country.

The attack on the district court compound in Islamabad by suspected Islamic militants came as more than 1,000 lawyers and political workers waited for Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was to address the rally. Police officials said that the bomber was riding a motorcycle.

The blast came days before the Supreme Court is expected to give its ruling on the legality of President Musharraf’s suspension of the country’s top judge. Justice Chaudhry was still several miles away at the time of the blast, which happened on a tree-lined street near a large tent erected beside the court. The street was thronged with supporters of Justice Chaudry but was also busy with evening shoppers.

Justice Chaudry was suspended on March 9, accused of nepotism and corruption. Opponents of President Musharraf claimed that the suspension was politically motivated, designed to remove an independent-minded judge who could potentially oppose the Government.

Last night police had taped off the area, where pools of blood, pieces of flesh and scattered shoes lay on the asphalt next to a blood-spattered car.

Most of the dead were workers from the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who had set up a reception camp close to the stage, raising speculation that the liberal group could have been the target.

The PPP, led by Benazir Bhutto, had supported President Musharraf’s action against Islamic militants. At least three of the dead were women.

President Musharraf said that he “condemned in the strongest terms the latest terrorist act which took place in Islamabad”.

A senior Pakistani security official said that the bombing might have been in retaliation for last week’s raid by security forces on the radical Red Mosque, in which a fundamentalist cleric and more than 75 of his followers were killed. Last night’s blast “was aimed at creating terror and mayhem”, the official said.

The storming of the Red Mosque had sparked sustained attacks across northwest Pakistan, where pro-Taleban clerics have called for revenge. More than 110 people, most of them army soldiers, have been killed in the violence in the lawless tribal region and the North West Frontier Province.

On Tuesday a suicide bomber killed three soldiers guarding a key road near the Afghan border, putting at risk government efforts to resurrect a peace deal with the pro al-Qaeda tribesmen.

The attack occurred in North Waziristan, a remote frontier region where militant leaders over the weekend pulled out from a ten-month-old accord with the Government.

The United States considers the north-west of Pakistan to be one of the most important battlegrounds in the War on Terror, and has long believed that Taleban fighters use the territory to regroup.

Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs, yesterday declared his support for Pakistani military action against militants in the region and promised more assistance to the Pakistani Army, particularly the “frontier corps” that patrols the border.

“There are elements in these areas that are extremely violent and will not settle for a peaceful way forward,” he said. “They remain the key: no Talebanisation, no cross-border activity, no al-Qaeda plotting and planning from the tribal areas.”

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