December 18, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Special security equipment installed in vehicles in the motorcade of President Pervez Musharraf saved his life when a bridge was blown up just after he crossed it, an official said Wednesday.

“The presidential motorcade has special jamming equipment, which blocks all remote-controlled devices in a 200-metre radius,” a senior security official investigating the blast told AFP.

“That is why the bomb exploded after Musharraf’s motorcade had crossed the bridge,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

Five high explosives were detonated seconds before Musharraf’s car travelled over the bridge near military headquarters in Rawalpindi Sunday, but they didn’t explode until after he’d passed over it.

“The entire operation was meticulously planned and had it not been for the jammer installed in the cars it would certainly have inflicted the damage.”

The official said “jihadi elements” — guerillas fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and pro-Taliban fighters along Pakistan’s western border — were the main suspects.

“The suspicion is on jihadi elements, especially pro-Taliban,” he said.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the war on terror, has blamed Islamic militants, whom he has infuriated with his anti-extremist drives and allegedly pro-US policies regarding Afghanistan and Kashmir.

The president is deeply unpopular among radical Islamists for abandoning Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, curbing rebel passage into Indian-controlled Kashmir and initiating a ceasefire with Indian forces.

Press reports on Monday said Al Qaeda was suspected of arranging the attack, but Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said such speculation was premature.

“It is too early to say that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks,” Rashid told AFP. “Investigations are under way in all directions.”

Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat also told AFP that Al Qaeda’s was only one of the suspects.

Now investigations are in progress exploring all avenues, Mr Hayat said.