ISLAMABAD,
December 14 (IslamOnline.net) - President General Pervez Musharraf
Sunday, December 14, was declared safe following a bomb explosion which
ripped apart a bridge from where the Presidential convoys had passed a
few moments earlier, near the army house, the official residence of the
President.
Pakistani
Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, announced on state television
that President was safe after an explosion near his motorcade.
“The
bridge is damaged from where the Presidential convoyed had passed one or
two minutes ahead of the explosion but there are no causalities” Ahmed
said Sunday evening.
Ahmed
would not say whether it was an assassination attempt on General Pervez
Musharraf.
He,
however, said the timing of the explosion was so close to the
Presidential convoy’s route that President Musharraf himself heard the
explosion.
“I
have just spoken to the President and he is safe and comfortable”
Rashid said.
Director
General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General
Shaukat Sultan said in a statement the explosion was a terrorist attack.
He also avoided clarifying whether President Musharraf was the target of
the attack.
Musharraf
lives in an ultra high security zone in the closed district of
Rawalpindi which houses the elite of Pakistan army. However, he travels
to the adjacent federal capital Islamabad everyday to attend his office
amid foolproof security arrangements.
More
than 30 kilometers of the road is sealed off for general public as soon
as the Presidential convoy hits the road.
General
Musharraf had escaped an attempt on his life last year when the remote
control device failed to detonate an explosive filled car near his
convoy in Karachi. Three men were later convicted to life imprisonment
for attempting to kill the President by a special court after a summary
trial.
