Major blast rocks Pakistani city

news.bbc.co.uk ^ | Thursday, 25 December, 2003, 09:40 GMT | bbc.

[KQQL]

At least one explosion has rocked the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad. Several people were reported injured, some of them seriously.

A convoy carrying President Pervez Musharraf had passed by just before the blast but he was unhurt, one report said, quoting a military spokesman.

Last week, President Musharraf had a narrow escape when a bomb blew up a bridge seconds after his convoy had crossed it in Rawalpindi.

[KQQL]

Attempt made on Pakistan President

December 25, 2003
ANOTHER attempt was made on the life Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf today, eye-witnesses said.

An explosives-laden van tried to ram his convoy in Rawalpindi today, eyewitnesses said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8256639%255E1702,00.html

[leadpenny]

AP via Yahoo!

World - AP Asia

Bomb Blast Near Pakistani Capital Kills 7
11 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A bomb hidden in a pickup truck exploded outside a police station near the capital on Thursday, killing at least seven people, the Interior Ministry said.

Witnesses say President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's motorcade passed bomb site moments before blast, Pakistani state-television reported. That raised the possibility that it was the second assassination attempt against Musharraf in less than two weeks.

The explosion occurred at about 1:45 p.m. in Rawalpindi, a bustling city just outside Islamabad, said Abdur Rauf Chaudry, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Witnesses said they saw body parts and some reported hearing two separate explosions.

The blast came with security high for Christmas. It also occurred not far from the spot where would-be assassins detonated a huge bomb moments after Musharraf's motorcade passed by on Dec. 14.

[piasa]

fyi

If I were Musharef I'd be seriously considering another line of work.

[angkor]

Mushy should reconsider whether those 20,000 Saudi-financed Wahabbi madrassas are a good or a bad thing for Pakistan.

[ecru]

oh my god he's like mr. magoo! lol.

[ChadGore]

oh my god he's like mr. magoo! lol.

[rusty millet]

That raised the possibility that it was the second assassination attempt against Musharraf

Another insightful analysis.

[Iris7]

Musharaff knew this was going to happen. What he is doing is very difficult. Right now he is trying to turn "the people" against his radical enemies by making those enemies appear excessively violent.

Musharaff is willingly drawing our enemies fire onto himself to further our goals. A brave man.

[Happy2BMe]

Better over there than over here.

[piasa]

Quite true. He's got his work cut out for him.

[Freebird Forever]

Welcome to FR, newbie!

[Beck_isright]

I hope this guy survives. If an anti-American Islamic nut of a General ends up in charge of Pakistan our worst fear will come true: A terrorist state with nukes.

[Jim Noble]

I for one have very little respect for Musharraf. We had buy him off for the very little that he has done. We need to tell this guy to get with it or we will move our troops into his country with or without his permission.

Pakistan was a bad idea in 1948, and it has not improved with time.

We should have been in discussions with New Delhi since 9/11 about the dissolution of Pakistan, and it's not too late to start.

Once Musharraf is killed and al Qaeda formally takes over, much time that could have been spent degrading the Paki armed forces will have been lost (they are not Arabs, some of them can fight).

[leadpenny]

Pakistani President Escapes New Death Plot
42 minutes ago

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Two suicide bombs exploded as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's motorcade passed Thursday, the second attempt to assassinate him in two weeks, officials said. Musharraf's car was damaged though he was unhurt, and at least 14 bystanders were killed.

The bombing in Rawalpindi, outside the capital, occurred near where a huge bomb exploded on Dec. 14 shortly after a convoy with Musharraf drove by. He escaped that attempt uninjured as well, and officials said high-tech jamming devices in the president's motorcade had delayed the device and saved his life.

In Thursday's attack, two suicide bombers detonated explosives hidden in pickup trucks as the president's motorcade passed two nearby gas stations on a main road in Rawalpindi, chief army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.

"It was an assassination attempt on the president," Sultan said. "It was a suicide attack."

Abdur Rauf Chaudry, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said 14 people were killed, including two policemen. At least two suicide bombers were also killed, and 46 people injured. The toll did not include the suicide bombers.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Pakistani television that the windshield on Musharraf's armored limousine was damaged, but the president's vehicle continued on its way.

"Thanks be to God, (the president) and members of his convoy are safe," Ahmed said.

Ahmed said Musharraf had returned to Army House, the heavily-fortified official residence of the army chief in Rawalpindi, and that he was safe. He said the president was considering addressing the nation on television later Thursday, but had not yet made up his mind.

The road where the attack occurred is one used nearly every day by Musharraf as he travels from his residence to his presidential offices.

"There has been a security lapse," Ahmed said. "Authorities will investigate, but there has definitely been a lapse."

Chaudry said the dead were apparently passers-by.

There was no immediate word on who carried out Thursday's attack. Officials have blamed the earlier assassination attempt on Islamic militant groups, though no major arrests have been made. Government officials have speculated that al-Qaida might have had a hand in the earlier attempt, which employed a sophisticated bomb hidden in five places on a bridge.

Shortly after the attack, frantic family members of those killed and injured gathered outside nearby Rawalpindi hospital, many in tears.

"I saw three people very badly injured," said Sajid Bashir, 25, an employee at one of the gas stations where the attack occurred. "It was chaos."

Another man, who identified himself only as Iqbal and said he was a friend of one of the dead police officers, blasted Musharraf's government for creating the conditions for the attack.

"This military rule created the terrorists and they are facing the consequences now," he told AP. "A lot of the people who were hurt and killed in this bombing were just walking on the street. They don't care about politics."

Security is always tight when Musharraf travels, with roads closed to allow his long motorcade to pass and heavily armed soldiers surrounding his vehicle. Security around the country was even tighter on Thursday as Pakistan's tiny Christian community celebrated Christmas.

Thursday's attack came a day after Musharraf agreed to step down as army chief by the end of 2004, ending a political stalemate that had paralyzed parliament and stalled this nation's return to democracy.

Under the agreement reached with a coalition of hardline Islamic parties, Musharraf would remain as president but give up the army post. Musharraf also agreed to scale back several extraordinary powers he had decreed himself after taking power in a 1999 coup.

Musharraf angered many militant groups after he threw his support behind the U.S.-backed war in neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites) following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Pakistan had been a key supporter of Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime.

Last April, a bomb hidden in a car failed to detonate as the president's car passed on a road in the southern port city of Karachi. Three Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the attack.

[Ranger]

Musharraf survives bomb attack

Thursday, December 25, 2003 Posted: 1229 GMT ( 8:29 PM HKT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Would-be assassins launched a two-pronged suicide attack against a convoy carrying Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Thursday, the second attempt to kill him in the last 12 days.

Musharraf escaped unharmed, the Pakistani Information Ministry said.

The president was traveling from Islamabad, to his home in Rawalpindi, just outside the capital, when two vans tried to enter the convoy -- one at the front of the convoy, one at the rear. Both vans exploded, police said.

At least 15 people died in the attack and at least 46 were wounded. Musharraf's car was damaged when the windshield was shattered, Pakistani officials said. In addition, two vehicles at the end of the president's motorcade were badly damaged.

Police said Musharraf safely escaped the attack and fled to his home.

Musharraf narrowly escaped an attack December 16, when a blast rocked a bridge in Rawalpindi about a minute after his motorcade had passed over it. (Full story)

Shortly after the attack, Musharraf blamed the blast on Islamic militants whom he had incensed when he sided with the United States in its war against the al Qaeda terrorist network and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001.

He banned several militant, religious and separatist groups in Pakistan and the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and has arrested hundreds of members.

Last month, he outlawed six previously banned militant groups after complaints from the U.S. they had reformed under new names.

Three Islamic militants were convicted for a previous attempt on Musharraf's life last year -- one of at least two assassination bids since he took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

The attempt in April 2002 was a similar attack in the port city of Karachi, which failed when a vehicle laden with explosives failed to detonate.

-- CNN Producer Sayed Noqvi contributed to this report

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/12/25/pakistan.blast/index.html

 

[dennisw]

The Islamic death cult loves to assassinate via bombs. I don't trust Islamics with C$ and now we have Iran on the verge of getting nukes. And Jihadist filth trying to kill Mushareff to get to the Pakistani nukes.

Islam = religion of assassination and anarchism done Mohammed style.

[Maigrey]

Man, I've heard of marked men, but his situation is getting out of hand.