Government officials said Friday that they had found part of the remains of one of the two suicide bombers who on Thursday attacked the convoy of the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The officials said they were in the process of identifying the remains. They also vowed that a meeting of South Asian leaders, scheduled here for early January, would take place as planned. State-run news media quoted Sheik Rashid Ahmed, the Pakistani information minister, as saying that the facial remains of one of the attackers were recovered near the site of the bomb blasts. He said the remains appeared to be those of a foreigner. He did not elaborate.
| Probably not European. Southeast Asian? Maybe Indonesian or Filipino? |
Two suicide bombers driving vans, each thought to contain about 50 to 60 pounds of explosives, rammed into General Musharraf’s motorcade in Rawalpindi. According to government officials, 15 people, including the bombers, were killed in the attack, which came close enough to the president to damage the windshield of his limousine. It was the second attempt in 11 days to kill General Musharraf, who escaped unhurt both times. The attack on Thursday was the deadliest attempt on his life since he reversed Pakistan’s support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and sided with the United States in September 2001. The assassination attempts have raised security concerns for the annual meeting of South Asian leaders from Jan. 4 to 6. Both attempts to kill General Musharraf took place in Rawalpindi, the heavily guarded city that serves as headquarters of the Pakistani Army and is near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
| Kind of screams "inside job," doesn't it? |
"We are pressing ahead with our preparations, and there is no question of delay or postponement," said Masood Khan, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. The leaders of Nepal and Sri Lanka reiterated their plans to attend the meeting. Pakistani authorities disclosed few details about their investigation into the attack on Thursday. "Which group carried out the attack — Al Qaeda, local militants or sectarian organizations — it would be guesswork to say right now," said Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Suspicions centered on Pakistani militants, members of Al Qaeda or a combination of both.
| I expect we'll know who dunnit within a few days... |
The attacks came two months after the release of an audiotape purportedly from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, urging Pakistanis to overthrow General Musharraf. There was little official comment on the identities of the two suicide attackers who struck Thursday. Sketches of the bombers were being prepared, said Mr. Ahmed, the information minister. "It seems that one of the suicide bombers was not a Pakistani," he said. |