PAKISTAN:A suicide bomber blew himself up among police guarding a court in Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 70.
The blast in front of Lahore High Court was the latest in a wave of attacks targeting politicians and security forces in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month.
No one claimed responsibility, but militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda were suspected.
The attack came as Scotland Yard officers visited forensic laboratories elsewhere in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, to examine evidence in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
The explosion sent shrapnel flying 100 yards, shattering windows in the courthouse and detonating tear-gas shells carried by the police, preventing rescuers from getting close to the victims in the seconds after the attack.
Chief of police operations Aftab Cheema said the bomber had run up to a barrier manned by police and blew himself up. He said 21 policemen and three civilians were killed. More than 70 others were wounded, including civilian passers-by.
The police had been placed in front of the court ahead of a weekly lawyers' protest against president Pervez Musharraf's firing of supreme court judges in November. The rally had been due to start about 15 minutes before the bomb went off.
About 200 lawyers were inside the high court at the time of the blast, and others were marching from a nearby district court.
Police cordoned off the area and appealed to bystanders to rush to hospitals to donate blood instead of crowding the scene and hindering emergency services.
Ijaz Nisar, chief minister of Punjab, said paramilitary ranger troops have been deployed at strategic points in Lahore and the army was on standby.