Pakistani police hunt bomb clues

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani investigators scouring the scene of a weekend suicide bomb attack on police found a severed head on Monday as the leader of the ruling party said his government would do everything to stop the bombers.

As police were investigating the Sunday blast in the capital, six small bombs went off on streets in the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city and its commercial capital, wounding at least 23 people, police said.

The attacks are likely to raise questions about the new government's security policy and will increase concern about prospects for the country, a nuclear-armed U.S. ally making a transition to civilian rule.

The toll from Sunday's attack on police, who had been guarding Islamists marking the anniversary of an army commando raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque, rose to 18 as two more of the nearly 50 wounded died, police said.

The government is led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.

Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over as leader of the party after his wife's murder, said in a statement those behind Sunday's "despicable" attack were trying to create chaos.

"Pakistan People's Party realises the grave threat that such terrorist activities pose ... and the PPP government will do everything possible to check the activities of such elements and those responsible will be brought to justice," he said.

President Pervez Musharraf, whose power has withered since his allies were defeated in a February election and who has been facing calls to step down, warned on Friday that more radical mosques would emerge if extremism and militancy were not tackled.