Bombers die in botched attack
2007-12-30 10:32
Karachi - Two suspected suicide bombers
were killed in Pakistan's central Punjab province early on
Sunday when the devices they were carrying exploded prematurely
in an apparent botched attack on a former minister, police
said.
The blast in Haroonabad, in southern Punjab, comes just
days after former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was slain in a
suicide attack, triggering widespread violence that has killed
at least 44 people.
Police said they believed Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq, a former
religious affairs minister in President Pervez Musharraf's
government who had earlier been staying at a house 200m
away from the site of the blast, was the intended
target.
"My guess is that they were there to target Mister
Ejaz-ul-Haq who visited the area a day earlier," said Zafar Abbas,
district police officer in nearby. Haq had already left the area before the incident.
Scattered body parts
Police found scattered body parts and the wreckage of a
motorcycle at the scene of the blast, and suspect they either
met an accident or fell from the bike, detonating the
explosives.
"We have retrieved two heads, which are badly mutilated and
cannot be identified. One appeared to be in his early 40s while
the other is a younger one," said another police officer.
Haq is the son of late former military ruler General
Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who executed Bhutto's father, former prime
minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1979.
Ul-Haq had been identified as a possible militant target
after a suicide attack on former interior minister Aftab Ahmed
Khan Sherpao last week that killed more than 50 people.
Police said some religious elements at a nearby mosque had
chanted slogans against Ul-Haq and Musharraf's former
government over a military assault on a Taliban-style movement
at Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, which triggered a wave of
suicide bombings.