Violence marred the reopening of the Lal Masjid in Pakistan with a suicide bomber blowing himself among a group of policemen near the mosque, killing 12 people and hundreds of radical students briefly recapturing the complex, the scene of a recent bloody military swoop to flush out extremists.

The suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body near a group of policemen standing near a hotel, 200 yards from the Lal Masjid.

"It was a suicide attack," Islamabad Deputy Commissioner of Police Chowdhry Mehmood Ali said.

Seven policemen were among the 12 killed while 39 others were injured in the blast.

The blast took place as an unruly group of radical students fought pitched battles with over 1500 policemen to take control of the mosque.

The siege began in the early noon when the renovated mosque painted in peach and white colours opened for Friday prayers. It went on till the blast took place at 1730 hrs at the close by busy Abpara market.

The militant students, who entered the mosque on the pretext of offering prayers, immediately began taking control of it and started painting it red.

Their first target was the newly appointed moderate cleric, Muhammad Ashfaq Madni.

Feverishly shouting slogans hailing jihad and the Ghazi brothers, the students manhandled Madni and virtually pushed him out of the mosque well before the moderate cleric geared up to hold Friday prayers.

Virtually shown live on the local TV channels, the violent crowd drove out Maulana Madni from the mosque. Madni was later taken to safe place by his followers.

The crowd also prevented the Jamat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch from offering prayers. Baloch, whose party chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed threatened to force his way into the mosque if it was not opened for prayers today was escorted out.

Hussain, also the President of the Islamist alliance Mutahhida Majlis Amal, was no where to be seen.

Several students were seen painting the mosque, which was painted in apple green on the instruction of government, in red colour. Some students were seen flying flags of Lal Masjid on the terrace.