25 killed in attack on Lal Masjid

At least 25 peo ple, mostly policemen, were killed in a suspected suicide attack near Lal Masjid here on Sunday, minutes after Islamic hardliners demanded the public hanging of President Pervez Musharraf at a rally to mark the shrine’s storming by the military a year back.

“The death toll can rise but we can confirm 25 deaths till now. Most of those killed are policemen,” an interior ministry official told this newspaper. The official toll, however, stood at 19 till the time of filing this report.

The Pakistan government declared a “red alert” throughout the country.