December 17, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 22, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: Investigators are questioning President Pervez Musharraf’s security officers over a bid to assassinate him by blowing up a bridge used by his motorcade on Sunday, ministers said on Tuesday.

“People responsible for providing security to the president are being questioned,” Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told AFP.

“The main focus of the investigations is how the explosives were placed under the bridge and whether there were any security lapses.”

Spokesman Abdul Rafur Chaudhry said “some people who were on duty and some other people” were under questioning.

Five bombs were planted under the bridge and detonated almost simultaneously, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed said. It was the second attempt on Gen Musharraf’s life in less than two years.

The amount of explosives used was enough to make 100 bombs, Mr Hayat said.

“The intensity of the explosives was very high. With such an amount you can make one bomb or 10 or 100,” he said, adding “the timing of the blast and the place clearly show that the president was the target.”

“This type of device was never used in the country in the past,” Mr Ahmed told AFP, adding they were “highly sophisticated.”

“They were planted by the most expert people,” he said.

The interior minister cited opponents of peace moves with India and “terrorist, extremist and fundamentalist threats” as possible perpetrators.

“The recent developments in the region and peace moves with India could be an eyesore also to certain elements,” he said.

Authorities have “revamped” security arrangements for Gen Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and other VIPs.

“There is a heightened state of alert to prevent any other incident,” Mr Hayat said. A separate police-civilian team and a military team were investigating the blast, he added.—AFP