Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Seven dead and eleven injured is the official toll from the explosion which took place a few hours ago in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s Armed Forces General Headquarters where President Musharraf was due to have been.
According to presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi “President Musharraf was safe inside his headquarters in Army House when the bomb went off”. Two policemen and the suspected bomber were among the victims, the rest were passers-by.
It is the fourth attack in less than two months on Pakistani political and military leaders: On 4 September, two suicide bombers killed 25 people in Rawalpindi, in an attack on a bus carrying intelligence officials to work; The following month, 139 people were killed when bombers in Karachi attacked the motorcade of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.
For some observers these attacks are the response of Islamic militants to the closure of Islamabad’s Red Mosque, ordered by the president last July and recently re-opened. For others, these are well targeted attacks backed by the government who want to force the Supreme Court to recognise Musharraf’s election which still hangs in the balance.