ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A bomber killed seven other people when he blew himself up about a quarter-mile from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's office Tuesday.
Officials said the attacker detonated his explosives among police at a checkpoint in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, just south of the capital, Islamabad.
Musharraf was safely inside Army House, about a quartermile away, where the blast rang out clearly, said presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi. The checkpoint guards a road to the president's compound and the residences of several top generals.
Police said three of their officers and four civilians were killed, along with the lone assailant. Fourteen policemen and four civilians suffered wounds.
"When police officers asked him to halt, the attacker 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."
No group claimed responsibility, and Qureshi would not speculate on who might be to blame.
Pakistan has been rocked by a string of suicide bombings mostly blamed on Islamic extremists, including the bombing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade. The Oct. 18 blast killed more than 140 people in the southern port of Karachi.
Musharraf went ahead Tuesday with the scheduled opening of a highway linking Islamabad with the northwest, and he warned extremists to stop killing fellow Muslims or face stern action.
"These terrorists and extremists elements must not retard the country's economic development by their senseless acts," Musharraf said, according to state-run Pakistan Radio.
At the site of the suicide attack, an AP photographer saw emergency workers remove the body of an elderly man killed while riding by on a bicycle. Police said women and children aboard a passing minibus numbered among the dead and wounded.
Bhutto vowed Tuesday to continue campaigning. She said she would visit Rawalpindi on Nov. 9 despite the violence. She said, however, that she would no longer hold processions like the one attacked Oct. 18.
A number of suicide bombings occurred in Pakistan since Musharraf cracked down on militants near the Afghan border in July. Two blasts killed 25 people in Rawalpindi on Sept. 4.
The government acknowledges the border area has become a haven for Taliban militants. The U.S. worries that al-Qaida might be using the area to plot new attacks.
Last week authorities senttroops to tackle supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in the northwestern district of Swat. Officials say four days of violence there left about 100 people dead.
About 5,000 tribesmen rallied Tuesday to demand a halt to military operations against militants in the northwest.
The protest was led by Faqir Mohammed, a purported Pakistani associate of al-Qaida's leaders who is being sought on accusations of harboring foreign militants.
Faqir Mohammed was guarded by hundreds of supporters, many carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The rally took place in the Bajur tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where a missile attack on a school killed80 people a year ago.
Musharraf is widely expected to join forces with Bhutto in a U.S.-friendly alliance after January parliamentary elections. However, their emerging coalition must survive a number of legal challenges being considered by the Supreme Court.
Information for this article was contributed from Islamabad by Munir Ahmad and Sadaqat Jan and from Karachi by Zarar Khan of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/31/2007