RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Police blocked a suicide bomber who blew himself up near the office of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday, killing seven people, officials said.
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Meanwhile, more than 1,000 supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif marched on Pakistan's Supreme Court in Islamabad as it prepared to hear arguments challenging his deportation last month by the Musharraf government.
The suicide bomber had walked up to a checkpoint in the city of Rawalpindi just a quarter-mile from Army House, the headquarters of the Pakistani army. Musharraf, a key U.S. ally who is also army chief, was safely inside at the time, his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.
The attack could further heighten fears for Pakistan's stability just as it prepares for crucial parliamentary elections and faces a growing threat from Islamic militants.
Police said three of their officers and four civilians were killed. Fourteen policemen and four civilians were wounded, he said.
"When police officers asked him to halt, the attacker got panicked. And as the police tried to capture him, he blew himself up," city police chief Saud Aziz told The Associated Press. "Our officers died to protect the citizens of Pakistan."
Police said women and children aboard a passing minibus were also among the dead and wounded. Television footage showed schoolbags abandoned on the seats of the vehicle, whose windows were blown out.
An Associated Press photographer saw army investigators collecting body parts and evidence at the scene.
While there was no claim of responsibility, Pakistan has been rocked by a string of suicide attacks mostly blamed on Islamic extremists battling security forces near the Afghan border.
A suicide bombing on the homecoming parade of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Oct. 18 in the southern city of Karachi killed more than 140 people. In Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital, two blasts on Sept. 4 killed 25 people and wounded more than 60, many of them on a Defense Ministry bus.
Last week, Pakistan deployed paramilitary forces to tackle militant supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in the northwestern district of Swat. Officials say four days of violence in the once-peaceful mountain region has left around 100 people dead, most of them militants.
The violence comes at a politically turbulent time in the country, with former premiers Sharif and Bhutto both vying for a role in Pakistan's governance.
Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, attempted to return from a seven-year exile on Sept. 10, but was deported on arrival back to Saudi Arabia despite a Supreme Court ruling that he be allowed back.
Sharif complained to the court, and at an Oct. 17 hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry ordered senior officials to explain who organized the flight that whisked him out of the country. The hearing was set resume on Tuesday afternoon.
Outside the courthouse in Islamabad, flag-waving supporters of Sharif's opposition party carried posters of him and played drums. They chanted, "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif" and "Musharraf is a dog of the Americans!"
Sharif still hopes to return to Pakistan to contest parliamentary elections slated for January.
Meanwhile, an 11-member panel of judges continued proceedings in a separate case challenging Musharraf's eligibility for the presidential election that he won Oct. 6. The court has ordered the result withheld until it makes its ruling.
Opponents argue that Musharraf was ineligible to contest the vote as he was still army chief and so disqualified under a bar on public servants seeking elected office. The government says Musharraf can hold his army post and the presidency until his current term expires.
Presiding judge Javed Iqbal asked lawyers to finish their arguments by Friday, when the judges would likely issue their ruling.
Musharraf has promised to quit his army job before beginning a new five-year presidential term. His term and that of Parliament expire on Nov. 15. Speculation persists that if the court rules against him, he could declare emergency rule or martial law.
That would throw the election schedule into doubt, and complicate the prospects of a possible alliance between Musharraf and Bhutto, who was allowed to return from exile after months of negotiations.
Musharraf has survived at least three attempts on his life — including two in Rawalpindi in December 2003. He and Bhutto, though longtime political rivals, both support the U.S.-led war on terrorism and stress the importance of fighting Islamic extremism in Pakistan.
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