ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: Two men who launched a suicide attack in their bid to assassinate President Gen Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi have been identified, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn on Friday.

“We were already expecting suicide attacks on the president, so we had taken extraordinary security measures to protect him. As a result, the president escaped unhurt in the two separate attacks committed almost simultaneously on the VIP route,” he said.

The minister said both the attackers belonged to an extremist group. However, he refused to disclose the name of the group as he said that would harm the ongoing investigation and strategic interests.

He said the law enforcement agencies “have found an important lead” following the identification of the assassins. “The head of one of the attackers was found undamaged, as a result of which he has been identified,” the minister said.

Mr Hayat said after the earlier attack on the president on Dec 14, a comprehensive plan for the security of the president and the prime minister was chalked out and put in place.

“I think the plan is being implemented effectively and that is the reason why the attackers failed to hit their target,” he said.

The minister said police personnel have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty which was to save the president at all cost. “It shows that there was no lapse in the security arrangements made for the president. Had there been any security breach, the situation could have been different,” he said.

The minister confirmed that 14 people, including four policemen, died in the two blasts and those who received injuries were stated to be 50 or thereabouts.

Responding to a question, the minister said law enforcement agencies “have found no link” between the attackers and those Afghan nationals who were arrested in the aftermath of an earlier attack on the president in which a bridge in Rawalpindi was badly damaged.

The minister was of the view that the recent attempts on the president’s life were not aimed at sabotaging the peace initiative taken by Pakistan with India and the Saarc summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad from Jan 4, 2004. He, however, said the attacks were made in reaction to President Musharraf’s pragmatic stand on war against terrorism.

“Those who wanted to impose their own ideology in the country are obviously unhappy with the government’s policies,” he added.

Asked whether he had met the president and received any directives from him regarding security and the law and order situation, the minister said so far no such meeting had taken place, but it was expected to be held within a week.

The minister said he had presided over two separate meetings to review the security arrangements and the law and order situation in the backdrop of recent attacks on the president.

“We have decided to completely change the code of security for the president. I cannot disclose the new code for security reasons,” he added. Talking to Dawn, interior secretary Tasneem Noorani confirmed 15 casualties in the suicide blasts.

He said it would be premature to say anything about the attackers who also died in the attacks.

He said the vehicles used in the attacks could provide some leads about those who were behind the incident.