Assassination attempt

last updated 8 January 2015

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

A massive, remote-controlled bomb blew up a bridge less than a minute after Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had crossed it in his presidential motorcade. Musharraf blamed Islamic extremists from the Taliban and al Qaida, who have regrouped in Pakistan since the U.S. invasion forced them out of Afghanistan. “It was certainly a terrorist act,” Musharraf said, “and certainly it was me who was targeted.” The bombing was the third attempt on the general’s life since 1999, when he assumed the presidency in a bloodless coup. This time, al Qaida is suspected; the Al-Jazeera network recently aired two taped messages from Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, in which he labels Musharraf a traitor and calls on Pakistanis to bring down the government.