Amid rising militant violence and deepening political uncertainty in Pakistan, suicide bombers have struck at the heart of the military establishment, killing 25 and wounding 70 defence ministry staff in Rawalpindi.

The two blasts went off at around 7.30 on Tuesday morning. The first bomber boarded a bus taking defence ministry employees to work. The explosion – near the Pakistani army’s nerve centre and President Pervez Musharraf’s official military residence – killed 17 people.

The second suicide blast took place at the Royal Artillery bazaar, about two kilometres away from the site of the first attack. The target seems to have been army officers en route to the military headquarters. At least eight people lost their lives in this second blast.

The recent surge of militant violence in Pakistan may or may not be connected to the storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad by security forces in July.

Branching out

Such violence has more or less restricted itself to the troubled tribal areas in the north-west near the Afghan border -- but suicide bomb attacks have already branched out to the capital Islamabad, and now to its sister city, Rawalpindi.

"Pakistan is in the middle of a very volatile region," said. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema. "There’s the situation in Afghanistan; and then there are the conflicts going on in our tribal areas, where our security forces are fighting against terrorists. And we’ve got evidence that these bomb-attacks in Islamabad and in other cities in Pakistan have some connection with the conflicts in the tribal areas."

Extreme challenges

He was even more clear regarding the future line-up: "Extremism and terrorism are the two biggest dangers for the well-being of Pakistan -- vital issues for the coming generations, for the country as a whole – and a task that cannot be completed by the law enforcement agencies, security forces and the police alone. The whole country will have to get together to confront this menace."

Despite the attacks, the government has ruled out a declaration of emergency and says it will not postpone presidential and parliamentary elections due later this year.