RAWALPINDI, July 6: Over two dozen shots were fired from a machine-gun with a telescope from the rooftop of a Rawalpindi house located right beneath the flight path of planes taking off from the Islamabad airport. However, the assailants who fired the machine-gun volley were unable to use the two anti-aircraft guns also installed on the roof of the two-storey house.
As the rounds fired from the SMG sparked a wave of panic in the Asghar Mall area, highly informed sources said President General Pervez Musharraf’s plane was either airborne at that time or was about to leave the airport, indicating that he could have been the target. Earlier reports, based on the deafening sound of machine-gun fire, had said that a rocket might have been fired from the place.
However, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Waheed Arshad was quick to deny that any rocket had been fired at the president’s plane, but did not comment on reports about the firing from the sub-machine gun or the discovery of anti-aircraft guns on the roof from where the shots had been fired.
Later in the day, Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah confirmed that shots had been fired from a sub-machine gun and gave details about recovery from the house of sophisticated weapons meant to bring down aircraft.
House raided
However, Mr Shah tried to play down the significance of the incident and said it did not appear to be linked to the president’s flight to Turbat. He, however, added that the correct situation would be known after completion of inquiry.
Mr Shah said that security agencies had raided the house and the SMG and two anti-aircraft guns, both 1.5 metres long, were found on the roof. Two satellite dishes and 150 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition and two large suitcases were also found. But by the time police and intelligence officials raided the house, the assailants had escaped.
Senior officials told Dawn that the weapons and other equipment found there clearly indicated that the assailants were planning to bring down an aircraft, but the manner in which the SMG, and not the anti-aircraft guns was used suggested that either something went wrong with their planning that the assailants were amateurs. However, the officials said, a complete picture would emerge when any of the culprits was arrested. A major manhunt, they added, had been launched in and around Rawalpindi.
Tenants untraceable
People who had rented the house three months ago could not be traced. Security source said that four people, the owner of the house and three estate agents, had been taken into custody for questioning.
The house, located in a densely populated area on the Asghar Mall road, is owned by businessman Haji Mohammad Asghar.
Some residents of the area said they had seen two persons, one a watchman who came there and a bearded man came there to park his vehicle.
People living near the house said that at around 10.15 am, they heard shots fired from the street.
“It sounded like a bomb blast. I rushed out of my hospital and saw people running in panic,” Mohammad Aslam who works in a private hospital on the same street told Dawn.
Another resident said that soon after the firing he saw two persons running away. Police officials, bomb disposal experts and intelligence officials rushed to the place and cordoned off the entire area. Armed police personnel were deployed on the rooftop of adjoining houses and a search of the house was carried out. Later, sniffer-dogs were also brought to the area.
Fake identity
Police have sealed the house. A source close to the investigation revealed that the identity given by the tenant in the lease agreement had turned out to be fake.
The president was flying from the Chaklala airbase in Rawalpindi to visit flood-affected areas in Balochistan around the time the bullets were fired. Official sources said the president had arrived safely in Turbat.
Earlier, three major attempts were made on president’s life, two in Rawalpindi near his camp office, and one in Balochistan when rocket was fired on his plane.
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