Islamabad residents stunned by blast outside Pak Supreme Court

Residents in Pakistan capital Islamabad are shocked and dismayed by Tuesday nights blast outside the Supreme Court complex, which claimed the lives of sixteen people and injured 57, even as security personnel searched for clues.

Islamabad, July 18 : Residents in Pakistan capital Islamabad are shocked and dismayed by Tuesday night's blast outside the Supreme Court complex, which claimed the lives of sixteen people and injured 57, even as security personnel searched for clues.

Some of the residents were reading this morning's papers avidly to get the details about the tragedy.

"This blast was a very terrible thing. Things like this should not happen. It is very wrong," shopkeeper Mohamamd Sharif was quoted by a foreign news agency, as saying.

"These incidents give a very bad name to Pakistan and Islam. This is the work of extremely despicable people who are conspiring to give Pakistan a bad name," Islamic teacher Qari Gulzar Ahmad Madani told the same agency.

The blast went off about 30 yards from a stage set up in a car park in a market area outside the court, and occured close to a stall put up by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), witnesses said.

Suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was due to address a gathering of lawyers and the public outside the court premises when the blast occurred.

ANI