December 15, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 20, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that he remained undeterred in the wake of terrorist incident on a Rawalpindi bridge soon after he crossed it.

He asserted that Pakistan will continue to fight against extremism “as it is the greatest internal threat to the country.”

The president said “there is no need for despondency or scare” and that he “trusts in God” and “life continues normally” for him.

President Musharraf, who attended a wedding ceremony at a local hotel, said he was used to this kind of things and “we have to fight the forces (behind terrorist incidents) with full might — we will meet this threat and investigate the incident.”

“It was certainly a terrorist act and, certainly, it was me who was targeted, but let me say with confidence that I am used to such incidents. It has happened before also, one does not get bothered.

“God is great and one has to trust in God, there is no problem, life continues normally — God is the Saviour,” he told APP and PTV after attending a wedding ceremony at at hotel.

The president said in response to a question that his message to forces behind the incident had been loud and clear, all along.

“It is the militants, extremists, terrorists and fundamentalists, who are out to not only damage our nation but also to bring a bad name to our great religion.”

Pakistan, he said, faced no external threat but an internal one in the form of religious extremism.

“I have been saying that the greatest danger to our nation is not external, it is internal and it comes from religious and sectarian extremists, and this is a typical example of that.

“We have to guard against them and we have to fight all these people with all our might.

“There is no need of any despondency, there is no need of any scare,” he said.

President Musharraf said he “does not have full details about the incident except that, yes I know, that when I came back from tour of Sindh, and as I was going home from Chaklala, and we crossed the Ammar Chowk bridge there was an explosion just one minute or half a minute after we crossed.”

The president said he felt the explosion in his car and that is all he knew when he reached home.

The government, he said, was collecting all the information. The president said the explosive used must have been very heavy. —APP