By Asif Farooqi, IOL Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, December 25 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped a suicide assassination attempt in Rawalpindi near his house when two cars loaded with explosives hit his convoy damaging several vehicles including the one carrying the President.

Musharraf and members of his staff, however, were unhurt. Fourteen people including some security officials were killed in the attempt, the second in less than two weeks.

“It was a narrow escape for the President, the blasts took place very close to his car” major general Shaukat Sultan, the military spokesman told reporters in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where the attack took place. “President’s car was also damaged,” General Sultan said.

He said three other vehicles of the convoy were damaged as one of the two explosive packed cars managed to hit the tale President’s convoy.

Eyewitnesses said two cars parked on two adjacent petrol pumps attacked the Presidential convoy when it was bypassing the pumps. One of the cars managed to hit the convoy with huge explosion.

The second car after failing to hit any of the convoy vehicles blew itself causing two simultaneous explosions.

No one has claimed responsibility of either attack neither the government has made any discoveries. However, after the earlier attempt Musharraf appeared on television to say the religious extremists could be behind the attack.

General Sultan said involvement of Osama Ben Laden’s al-Qaeda network could not be ruled out.

“It could be al-Qaeda, it could be domestic religious hardliners or it could be a collision between the two” General Sultan said. He added the involvement of any local or foreign hand could not be ruled out at this moment.

Since the launch of anti-extremist drive two years back this is the third, serious attempt on Musharraf’s life who is seen as traitor by local Islamic groups and al-Qaeda leaders.

In a videotaped statement aired in September this year, al-Qaeda number two Aymen Al Zawahiri had urged Pakistani to rise up against Musharraf, blaming him to be a traitor who “sold blood of Muslim in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S.

"We ask our Muslim brethren in Pakistan: until when will you put up with the traitor Musharraf, who sold the Muslims' blood in Afghanistan and handed over the Arab mujahedeen to crusader America” Zawahiri had said.

President Musharraf was said to be in a high level meeting soon after the assassination attempt, to review his security details.

It may be mentioned here that the area in Rawalpindi where the two attempts took place is a high security zone as some of the important military installations are located in two kilometers radius of the bomb blasts.

The method of attacks and timing also suggest that not only the killers know the timing and route of the President, they also have good communication.

For example on Wednesday when Musharraf was heading home from a ceremony in Islamabad, two dummy convoys left the place from different routes. But the attackers had the knowledge which convoy actually had Musharraf.

“This is a security laps” Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Information Minister said. He said Musharraf is reviewing his security details and reassessment is already underway.