At least 14 dead in Pakistan blast

Two massive suicide bombs exploded today moments after Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf’s motorcade passed – the second assassination attempt against him in 11 days, officials said.

The president’s car was damaged but he was unhurt. At least 14 passers-by were killed and 46 people injured.

The blast came just a day after Gen Musharraf agreed to step down as army chief by the end of 2004.

“It was an assassination attempt on the president,” said General Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman. “It was a suicide attack.”

He said two suicide bombers detonated explosives hidden in pick-up trucks as the president’s motorcade passed two near petrol stations on a main road in Rawalpindi, a bustling city near the capital, Islamabad.

Witnesses reported seeing body parts, shattered cars and broken glass along the route.

Abdur Rauf Chaudry, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said 14 people were killed, including two policemen. At least two suicide bombers were also killed, and 46 people were injured.

“Thanks be to God, (the president) and members of his convoy are safe,” information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in a short announcement made on Pakistani television.

Ahmed said the windscreen on Gen Musharraf’s armoured limousine was damaged, and a car at the end of his motorcade was severely damaged, but the president’s vehicle continued on its way.

“There has been a security lapse,” Ahmed said. ”Authorities will investigate, but there has definitely been a lapse.”

Ahmed said Gen Musharraf had returned to Army House, the heavily-fortified official residence of the army chief in Rawalpindi, and that he was safe. He said the president was considering addressing the nation on television later today, but had not yet made up his mind.

The road where the attack occurred is one used nearly every day by Gen Musharraf as he travels from his residence to his presidential offices.

Shortly after the attack, frantic family members of those killed and injured gathered outside nearby Rawalpindi hospital, many in tears.

“I saw three people very badly injured,” said Sajid Bashir, 25, an employee at one of the petrol stations where the attack occurred. “It was chaos.”

Another man, who said he was a friend of one of the dead police officers, blasted Gen Musharraf’s government for creating the conditions for the attack.

“This military rule created the terrorists and they are facing the consequences now,” he said. “A lot of the people who were hurt and killed in this bombing were just walking on the street. They don’t care about politics.”

The blast occurred t 1.40pm (8.40am Irish time) just 300 yards from the spot where would-be assassins detonated a huge bomb on December 14 in another failed attempt to kill Gen Musharraf.

High-tech jamming devices in the president’s motorcade apparently delayed the detonation long enough for him to pass by safely.

Islamic militant groups were believed to be behind that attack, though no major arrests have been made. Government officials have speculated that al Qaida might have had a hand in the first attempt, which employed a sophisticated bomb hidden in five places on a bridge.

There has also been concern that someone with sensitive information about Gen Musharraf’s movements may have had a hand in the first attack.

Security is always tight when the president travels, with roads closed to allow his long motorcade to pass and heavily-armed soldiers surrounding his vehicle.

Security measures were even more stringent today as Pakistan’s tiny Christian community celebrated Christmas.

The attack came a day after Gen Musharraf agreed to step down as army chief by the end of next year, ending a political stalemate that had paralysed parliament and stalled this nation’s return to democracy.

Under the agreement reached with a coalition of hardline Islamic parties, Gen Musharraf will remain as president but give up the army post.

He also agreed to scale back several extraordinary powers he had given himself after taking power in a 1999 coup.

It was at least the third attempt on Gen Musharraf’s life since he came to power. Last April, a bomb hidden in a car failed to detonate as the president’s car passed on a road in the southern port city of Karachi. Three Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for that attack.

Gen Musharraf angered many militant groups after he threw his support behind the US-backed war in neighbouring Afghanistan following the September 11 terror attacks.

Pakistan had been a key supporter of Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban regime.