Explosives used in bid on Musharraf 'same' as Bali
Explosives used in bid on Musharraf 'same' as Bali
Reuters, Lahore, Pakistan
Explosives used in an attempt to assassinate Pakistani President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf a week ago were the same type as those used
in the Bali bombings, Pakistani intelligence sources said on
Sunday.
American intelligence agencies also warned Pakistan after the
HSBC Bank blast in Istanbul last month that foreign terrorists
would try to enter Pakistan to carry out attacks, the sources,
who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.
The sources confirmed a report in the Pakistani newspaper The
News that said C4 plastic explosive was used to blow up a bridge
in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, just after Musharraf's motorcade
had passed last Sunday.
Police say the Bali bombings last year, in which 202 people
were killed, was the work of an al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian
militant network. Investigators said C4 plastic explosive was
used in one of the bombings which ripped through a nightspot.
Musharraf told Reuters in an interview last week after the
assassination attempt that al-Qaeda and their local collaborators
were at the front of the queue of those who wished to kill him.
The News quoted one of its sources as saying that the attack
on Musharraf was the first in which C4 explosives had been used
in an attack in Pakistan.
"We just know that C4 is now in the possession of terrorists
in the country, but in what quantity is the subject of a
nationwide probe," an official told the paper.
The intelligence officials who spoke to Reuters said U.S.
intelligence had warned Pakistan after the Istanbul bombing that
14 suspects from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and
Kenya would try to enter Pakistan to carry out attacks.
The sources said a few had already entered the country and
Pakistani intelligence agencies were trying to track them down.
The News quoted sources as saying that security agencies were
also "intensely following" an intelligence tip that local
operatives of a radical pro al-Qaeda Sunni Muslim group went
underground in Rawalpindi just before the assassination bid.
The paper said initial investigations had strengthened the
view that U.S.-supplied jammers installed in Musharraf's armored
Mercedes had delayed electronic signals used to detonate the
explosives.
The paper said five separate lots of explosives in
interconnected pouches, each weighing 10 kg (22 pounds), had been
attached to horizontal bars on the bridge.