Pakistan Bomb Kills 7 Ahead of Rally

Troops of Pakistan's paramilitary troops take positions in a troubled city of Matta, Swat after a Sunday's suicide attack which killed 18 people in northwestern Pakistan, Monday, July 16, 2007. Pakistan authorities were probing suspected links between radicals at the captured Red Mosque and militants in the northwest frontier, where more than 70 people died in weekend suicide attacks and bombings. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)




Pakistan Bomb Kills 7 Ahead of Rally


A powerful bomb exploded in the Pakistani capital on Tuesday at the site of an upcoming rally featuring the country's suspended chief justice, police said. At least seven people were killed in the explosion, one of at least two deadly blasts in the volatile country.
In Pakistan's lawless northwest, a suicide bomber struck a security post, killing at least four people and undermining government efforts to rescue a peace deal meant to contain Islamic militants in the lawless Afghan border region.
In Islamabad, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was traveling to the rally and about three miles away when the bomb exploded near the stage set up for him, said Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed, the police chief.

This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) _ A suicide bomber struck a security post in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least four people and undermining government efforts to rescue a peace deal meant to contain Islamic militants in the lawless Afghan border region.
Three others were wounded in the attack in the lawless North Waziristan region, security officials said. He said the bomber parked his car nearby and approached the roadside security post on foot.
Parking his car nearby, the bomber walked to the post and detonated the explosive on a road linking Bannu and Miran Shah, North Waziristan's main town, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their jobs. Three soldiers and a passer-by were killed.
Earlier Tuesday, powerful dynamite blasts destroyed two unmanned security posts in North Waziristan's main town, Miran Shah, another intelligence official said. No injuries were reported.
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, long insisted the 10-month-old accord was key to ending extremism in the tribal region, although U.S. officials complained it provided the Taliban and al-Qaida with a safe haven.
Pro-Taliban militants renounced the agreement amid weekend bombings and suicide attacks that killed more than 70 people across the northwest, most of them policemen and soldiers.
The violence has added to the sense of crisis in Pakistan, challenging the ability of Musharraf to confront Islamic extremism as he faces a growing democracy movement ahead of year-end elections.
A delegation of government-backed tribal elders negotiated Monday with militant leaders in Miran Shah. The militants were supposedly being urged to stick with the agreement and told the government would compensate people harmed by earlier military operations.
Akram Khan Durrani, the province's top elected official, said Monday that a failure of the peace deal would have "dangerous consequences."
Signed in September, the accord was a shift in strategy by Musharraf after the army lost hundreds of soldiers in operations against al-Qaida hideouts. Troops pulled back to barracks or to posts on the border in return for pledges from tribal leaders to expel foreign fighters and halt militant attacks in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
The deal was supposed to open the way for an extensive development program for which the U.S. pledged $750 million over the next five years and which Musharraf said ultimately would dry up support for militancy.
Some U.S. military officers claimed cross-border attacks surged after the accord went into effect, and U.S. counterterrorism officials warned the deal allowed al-Qaida to step up training and planning, possibly for another Sept. 11-style attack in the West.
White House spokesman Tony Snow called the agreement between tribal leaders and Pakistan a "carrot approach in the tribal areas" that "did not work."
"It is clear that there has been activity there, including al-Qaida training," Snow said. Musharraf "has been effective in using force against those who have been committing acts of terror, and we certainly hope it succeeds."
Pakistani authorities also were looking into suspected links between the violence in the northwest and the battle at Islamabad's Red Mosque, where more than 100 people died in an eight-day siege that ended last week with a commando attack on Islamic militants holding the compound.
Some Pakistani analysts believe Musharraf remains reluctant to take on the militants for fear of fueling resentment among a conservative Muslim population widely skeptical of his close ties with Washington.
The president also has faced a political uproar in recent months over this attempt to oust Pakistan's chief justice for alleged misconduct. Government lawyers dropped two allegations against the judge Monday without explanation, but retained most of the charges.
Critics accuse Musharraf of trying to engineer the removal of an independent-minded judge ahead of expected legal challenges to his continued rule.
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Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, Bashirullah Khan in Miran Shah and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.