The Pakistani prime minister-designate has survived an attempt on his life by a suicide bomber who came close enough to his car to kill the politician’s driver and at least four other people, and spraying shrapnel into a crowd of his supporters.
About three dozen people were wounded, some seriously, in the blast on Friday, hospital officials said.
The assassination attempt against Shaukat Aziz occurred just hours after authorities announced the capture of a senior al-Qaeda terrorist and a day after Pakistan acknowledged it is considering sending troops to Iraq. Suspicion immediately fell on Islamic militants enraged at President General Pervez Musharraf’s support for the United States-led war on terror.
Pakistan said the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani — a Tanzanian with a $25-million bounty on his head in the US for
his alleged role in the 1998 East African embassy attacks — was ”a major blow” to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, and vowed to keep hunting terrorists.
The assassination attempt occurred at about 7.20pm as Aziz — the 60-year-old Finance Minister who has already been tapped to take over as prime minister — was leaving a rally in Fateh Jang, a town 55km south-west of the capital, said Tahir Sadiq, the town’s mayor.
Aziz and Sadiq had just gotten into the bulletproof Mercedes, parked in a crowded area, when a man approached and set off the blast. Aziz’s driver had not yet closed his armoured door and was killed, Sadiq said.
”The moment I sat in the car with Aziz there was an explosion,” he said. ”He is safe and God Almighty is the greatest protector.”
Two hours after the attack, Aziz — appearing unhurt — told a gathering of supporters outside his Islamabad home that he was all right and would ”continue to serve the country with the same commitment and determination”.
About a dozen heavily armed Pakistani soldiers arrived shortly afterward to guard the residence.
Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed put the death toll at five.
”It was a conspiracy against our democracy but the election process will continue,” he said.
Musharraf, who survived two assassination attempts in December, also condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of lives.
”These cowardly acts will not deter us from our fight against terror,” he said.
Aziz, a former Citibank executive credited with turning around Pakistan’s economy under Musharraf, was in Fateh Jang to campaign for an upcoming by-election in which he needs to win a seat in the lower house.
Musharraf’s ruling party has said they want him to be prime minister, but the senator must first gain a parliamentary seat in the August 18 vote to be eligible. A victory is all but assured.
Opposition parties have denounced the proceedings as an affront to Pakistani democracy, five years after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup.
When Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali stepped down last month — reportedly after disputes with Musharraf — Chaudry Shujaat Hussain was appointed caretaker prime minister while the political machinations are completed to allow Aziz to step in.
The attack also follows two attempts blamed on al-Qaeda to assassinate Musharraf, the ultimate powerbroker in this conservative Islamic nation of 150-million people. The second attack was close enough to kill several members of his entourage and more than a dozen passers-by.
Meanwhile, the government said it would consider extraditing Ghailani to the US, but only after it completes its interrogation of him. He faces the death penalty of convicted in the US.
A Tanzanian official said his country had not yet decided whether to seek custody of Ghailani, who was arrested on Sunday after a 12-hour firefight in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat. — Sapa-AP