Pakistan has made several arrests in the attempted assassination of the prime minister-designate and has found the head of the suicide bomber, officials said Sunday. Shaukat Aziz, the finance minister tapped to take over as prime minister, escaped unharmed Friday, but nine people were killed and three dozen were wounded in the bombing. The dead included Aziz's driver, an indication of how close the bomber came. Pieces of clothing believed worn by the bomber also were found at the blast scene. The clothing included a tag from a tailor in Attock, the main town near the site of the suicide attack. The tailor was being questioned by authorities.
| "Ootch! Ouch! Hey! Stop that! No! Not the women's underwear! I'll talk!" |
| "We have a lovely lavendar bomb vest in a 38 short. And it has your name on it!" |
On Sunday, the government promised a reward of 10 million rupees — the equivalent of $17,500 — for information about the bomber's identity, state-run Pakistan Television said. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said security officials made "some progress" and had arrested some people in the attack against Aziz. He would not say how many or whether any were considered suspects. Ahmed has said the attack bore the fingerprints of al-Qaida — which would make it the latest attempt by Osama bin Laden's terror network to take out Pakistan's leadership.
A militant group calling itself the "Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaida" said in a Saturday statement on an Islamic Web site that it was behind the blast. Lt. Khaled Islambouli was the leader of the group of soldiers who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. "One of our blessed battalions tried to hunt a head of one of America's infidels in Pakistan while he was returning from Fateh Jang, but God wanted him to survive," said the group's Arabic-language statement.
| Does that tell you anything, you superstitious bastards? |
The statement said the suicide attack was a response to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's handing over captured militants to the Americans and warned him "this operation yesterday will be followed by a series of painful strikes if you don't stop what you are doing by complying to the wicked (President) Bush's orders." The group said the message was "the last warning" and "within the coming few days, our brigades will speak with the language of blood which is the only language you understand."
Pakistani television showed gruesome footage of Friday's bombing, with the camera capturing the suicide attacker approaching the driver's door of Aziz's armored Mercedes, raising his hand and then blowing up. Aziz was already in the car, but the driver had not closed his own door and was among those killed. |