Pakistan Bombing Misses Musharraf Convoy by Minute

Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | 12/14/03 | Zeeshan Haider

[TexKat]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's military President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped a "terrorist" attack Sunday after a bomb tore up a section of road in the northern city of Rawalpindi a minute after his convoy passed, officials said.

"The president's motorcade passed a minute before the blast," a military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, said. "He is safe and sound."

"It is a terrorist act," Sultan said. "Whether it was an assassination attempt or not cannot be said until after the investigations."

Musharraf incensed militant groups by abandoning Pakistan's support for neighboring Afghanistan's ousted Taliban rulers and backing the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Musharraf had just returned from the southern city of Karachi, and the blast occurred 1.2 miles from Islamabad International Airport, near the outskirts of neighboring Rawalpindi.

A Karachi court convicted three Islamic militants in October for a failed attempt to assassinate Musharraf last year, handing down 10-year jail terms to each of them.

The militants belonged to the al-Almi faction of Harkat-ul Mujahideen, a group also accused of masterminding a suicide attack last year outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi in which 12 Pakistanis died.

Last month, Musharraf announced the banning of six militant groups following U.S. complaints that they had re-emerged under new names after being outlawed a year ago.

Eyewitnesses said the blast occurred at a bridge in the city where Pakistan's military is headquartered.

"As the president's motorcade passed, a huge explosion blew up the bridge," said Sheharyar Khan whose car was caught in roadblock after the blast.

Police had cordoned off the area.