WASHINGTON, Dec 26: The United States on Friday expressed dismay over the assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf, and warned that terrorists posing as beggars or vendors may now target Americans.

“We were dismayed to hear that a bomb blast occurred near President Musharraf’s motorcade in Rawalpindi. We are very pleased that the president and his traveling party escaped unhurt,” a State Department spokesman Lou Fintor told Dawn.

He then warned: “We have evidence of a potential threat to American citizens and other Westerners in Pakistan from terrorists posing as street vendors or beggars on busy streets.

“We urge US citizens to avoid congested areas where theseindividuals could approach their vehicles.”

The department reminded US citizens that sectarian and separatist terrorists within Pakistan continue to target American and other Western interests as well as those of certain indigenous groups.

“Bombings and assassinations continue to occur throughout Pakistan. For example two Americans were killed in several more injured in a bombing at an Islamabad church frequented by Westerners on March 17, 2002 and an American news reporter was kidnapped and killed in Karachi in Jan 2002. The US Consulate-General, Karachi, sustained attacks in June 2002 and February 2003.”

The State Department extended condolences to the families of the policemen and other victims of the bomb blast and hoped that Pakistan authorities would identify the “perpetrators of this criminal act and soon bring them to justice.”