ISLAMABAD, 2 August 2004 — Pakistan vowed yesterday it would not be deterred by Al-Qaeda threats of further attacks after the terror group claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt on prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz.
“It strengthens our resolve to continue our fight against terrorism,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told AFP. He said Al-Qaeda’s claim of responsibility for the suicide bomb attack on Aziz, which killed seven people Friday, confirmed Pakistan’s assessment the group was involved in terrorist acts in the country.
“It only confirms our assessment of their involvement,” he said referring to the third attempt on Pakistani leaders in recent months blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Aziz, 55, narrowly escaped death and injury when a suicide bomber walked up to his car when he was leaving an election rally in Attock, about 45 kilometers west of Islamabad late Friday.
The blast killed Aziz’s driver and six others including the attacker. President Pervez Musharraf himself survived two assassination attempts by Al-Qaeda-linked suspects in December.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the attacks on the president’s motorcade in the nearby city of Rawalpindi and the attempt on Aziz’s life could be interlinked.
“One can say there is a possibility that they are interlinked,” Rashid told AFP.
A militant group calling itself ‘Al-Islambouli Brigades, Al-Qaeda organization’ posted a statement on a website claiming responsibility for Friday’s attack.
It said the attack was a response to Musharraf’s handover of militants to the United States. “One of our blessed squads tried to get one of America’s... men in Pakistan as he returned from Fatehjang,” the statement in Arabic said, referring to the site of the attack.
The purported group is named after Khaled Al-Islambouli, an army officer who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981.
The statement went on to threaten more “painful strikes” if Pakistani leaders did “not stop taking orders from the despicable (US President George W.) Bush”.
The military spokesman said these threats would not weaken Pakistan’s resolve. “Pakistan will continue its fight against terrorism. We will fight it out.”
Pakistan, since becoming a key US ally in the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects and handed the majority over to US custody.
The assassination attempt on Aziz came hours after Pakistan announced it captured a key suspect in the deadly 1998 bombings by Osama Bin Laden’s terror network of two US embassies in east Africa.
Sen. Aziz, finance minister and close ally of Musharraf, has been nominated prime minister by the ruling party. He is contesting a by-election for a seat in the lower house in order to become prime minister later this month.
An economics wizard and former Citibank executive, Aziz was summonsed by Musharraf to become finance minister shortly after his October 1999 coup.
Commanding 30 years experience in global finance and international banking, Aziz helped bring Pakistan’s economy back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Some people have been detained in connection with an assassination bid on prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz that has been claimed by a group with purported links to Al-Qaeda, officials said yesterday.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said “a few suspects” were being interrogated. Rashid, the information minister, said the militants were feeling the pressure of the crackdown. “They know we are getting close to their hiding places,” he told Reuters.
They are also disturbed with the recent arrests of their key men and the operation in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, he said.
“They are reacting in desperation.” Musharraf, who is leading the drive against extremists, has himself survived at least three assassination attempts, most recently a suicide car bombing on December 25. They attacks have also targeted Westerners, top government and military officials and the religious minorities.
