Authorities investigate Musharraf 'assassination attempt'

Authorities in Pakistan were today investigating a possible assassination attempt against President General Pervez Musharraf after shots rang out as his plane took off from a military base, officials said.

It was unclear if yesterday's incident was linked to an army siege of a radical mosque in the capital where dozens of Islamic students and militants are holed up, refusing to surrender.

Police said a suicide attacker pedalled a bicycle bomb into a military convoy in the northwest, killing four soldiers.

Musharraf was flying from Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi yesterday morning when shots rang out from a neighbourhood that lies directly under the flight path, officials and witnesses said.

"It was an unsuccessful effort by miscreants to target the president's plane," a senior security official said.

The plane later landed safely in the town of Turbat where Musharraf was to visit the flood-ravaged south.

If confirmed, the attack would be at least the fourth attempt on Musharraf's life since his decision to side with the United States in its war on terror enraged Taliban and al-Qaida-linked radicals in Pakistan.