Pakistan prime minister to be escapes assassination

PAKISTAN has detained several people in the attempted assassination of the man selected to be the country's prime minister, a government minister said yesterday.

Others close to the investigation also said it was making progress, including a senior official who said the bomber's head had been discovered, along with what appears to be tatters of his clothing.

Shaukat Aziz, the finance minister tipped to take over as prime minister, escaped unharmed, but nine people were killed and three dozen wounded. Among the dead was Aziz's driver.

In a statement on an Islamic website, a militant group, Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaida, said it was behind the blast.

"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 Arabic-language statement.

It said the attack was in response to President General Pervez Musharraf's handing of captured militants to the Americans.

"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 (US President) Bush's orders," the group said, addressing Mr Musharraf.

The group said its message was "the last warning" and that "within the coming few days, our brigades will speak with the language of blood which is the only language you understand."

It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the claim. Lt Khaled Islambouli was the leader of the group of soldiers who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cairo in 1981.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said security officials investigating the attack on Aziz "have made some progress" and have arrested some people.

Ahmed has said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden's terror network has already been blamed for two attempts to kill Mr Musharraf in December, one of which killed 17 people.

Mr Musharraf has been a top US ally in the war on terror, infuriating Muslim radicals in Pakistan and elsewhere, and his security services have arrested a number of top al-Qaida-linked figures, most recently Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

Ghailani, a Tanzanian who faces a possible death sentence in the US for his role in the 1998 twin embassy bombings in East Africa, was caught on July 25, but his arrest was not announced until Friday, hours before the attempt on Aziz.

The government said the arrest of Ghailani in the eastern town of Gujrat was a major blow to al-Qaida and vowed to keep hunting terrorists.

Pakistan has already said it would consider extraditing Ghailani to the United States, where he could face the death penalty.