International   

We did it, says Taliban outfit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday an apparent attempt to assassinate him was carried out by forces that did not want democracy to flourish.

Three people have been arrested in connection with the attack on his motorcade on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. Gilani was not in any cars in the motorcade. The cars were on their way to fetch him from the Chaklala airbase at Islamabad airport where he was due to arrive three hours later from Lahore. Two bullets hit the driver’s side or front right window of an armour-plated car. Officials have said the shots were fired from a small hillock on the main highway to the airport.

The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported Mr. Gilani telling journalists that “anti-democratic” forces were behind the attack. He also said the car window that had been hit by the two bullets had been sent abroad for forensic analysis as part of the investigation.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A TTP spokesman told Reuters Mr. Gilani was responsible for the ongoing offensives against militants in the northwest of Pakistan.

Media speculated that the attack was a “deliberate warning” to Mr. Gilani on the government’s policy in the frontier tribal areas, where a military operation against militants made considerable gains before being suspended for the Ramzan month.

Earlier, the Prime Minister told The News that he had been scheduled to fly back from Lahore on Tuesday night, but had put off his departure after he was warned of an attempt.

He told the newspaper that his travel plans changed suddenly on the consideration that thethreat could be better countered by returning to Islamabad during the day, rather than give his would-be assailants the advantage of operating in the cover of darkness.

The paper said it was not clear who had warned him, and asked why such accurate information had not led to the nabbing of the attackers. Questions have also been raised about the precision with which two shots were fired at almost the same spot — only a tiny gap separates the two bullet holes — though the motorcade is said to have been clipping down the highway.

In the National Assembly, the former Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who leads his own faction of the Pakistan People’s Party, quipped that such a perfect marksman could have earned Pakistan a gold medal at the Olympics.

Geo TV reported that the driver had told investigators he did not hear the sound of the firing as he was listening to a recitation of the Koran at full volume on the car’s sound system, but he noticed the cracked window, and immediately informed the accompanying security officials who asked him to keep going. The car was examined when it reached the Chaklala air base. It is not clear if the Prime Minister used the same motorcade and the same route on his way back. Some reports suggest that he did.

Policemen and sniffer dogs scoured the hillock from where the bullets are reported to have been fired for clues all of Wednesday afternoon. According to Dawn, they did not even find empty bullet casings from the spot.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Violation of sovereignty, Pakistan tells America
We did it, says Taliban outfit
U.N. plea on displaced in Sri Lanka
McCain nominated, Palin steals the show
Mugabe’s ultimatum
Elephant beats drug addiction
Russia's allies side with Moscow against Georgia

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu