Suspects questioned over Pakistan airport attack
PAKISTAN: Pakistani investigators on Wednesday were quizzing two
suspects after an Islamic militant was killed by his own hand grenade in
a brazen attack on Islamabad international airport, officials said.
The attack late Tuesday was the fifth in less than two weeks in
Pakistan, raising fears that Taliban militants fighting Pakistani troops
near the Afghan border are trying to embarrass President Pervez
Musharraf.
The two suspects were in a car which drove the attacker to the
airport car park, where he exchanged gunfire with security forces after
they stopped him at a security checkpost, injuring three police. He then
died in the blast.
“We are interrogating two people — one of them is a driver and the
other one was also said to be travelling in the same car,” a senior
security official told AFP.
Officials hoped they could provide leads to the group behind the
attack amid fears the militants are “desperate” to send a message to
military ruler Musharraf’s government.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao confirmed there were three men in the
car but gave no further details.
He however said the incident was no longer being considered as a
suicide attack because “when we searched the body we did not find any
explosive belt on him.”
“The circumstantial evidence does not suggest that it was a suicide
attack. He might have come for a hit and run attack,” Brigadier Javed
Cheema, head of the interior ministry’s national crisis management cell,
told AFP.
“When police tried to check the car he pulled a mask on his face and
started firing. He ran towards the car park and threw a grenade which
did not explode. Three bullets hit him in the chest and one grenade was
found on his body.”
The bearded bomber’s bloodstained body, with the legs mangled by the
blast, was shown to journalists after the explosion. Several cars were
also damaged in the blast and the exchange of fire.
The airport was briefly closed and several flights were delayed or
diverted.
Cheema said security had been further beefed up at other airports.
Musharraf flew in to nearby Chaklala Airbase hours after the attack
following a trip to Iran and Turkey.
Islamabad, Wednesday, AFP.
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