ISLAMABAD, 8 October 2006 — Pakistani police yesterday discovered two rockets aimed at the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the country’s elite spy agency. The rockets were found two days after a similar pair of rockets was defused near the official residence of President Pervez Musharraf in the capital. “The rockets were aimed at the ISI headquarters” which is located on a main road in the capital Islamabad, an official said on condition of anonymity.
“We have defused the rockets. The rockets were Russian-made, similar to the ones found and defused Thursday near the Parliament building,” he said. The official dismissed an earlier police report that the rockets, found on the city’s Shakarparian hills overlooking the ISI headquarters, were dummies deployed in a mock exercise carried out to check security preparedness.
The capital’s police chief, Chaudhry Iftikhar, later said the confusion arose because of a misunderstanding between security departments.
Yesterday’s incident followed two earlier security scares. On Thursday two rockets fixed to launchers and hidden in bushes were found at a construction site opposite the president’s official residence. Late Wednesday an explosion occurred at a park near the army residence of Musharraf in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, adjoining Islamabad.
A security alert has been enforced in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Officials said security for the president had also been tightened. Security officials said they were investigating how the rockets, which were of Russian origin and are found in abundance in Afghanistan, were brought into the Pakistani capital.
The chief of the US Central Command yesterday met with Musharraf and praised Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism, a government statement said.
Gen. John Abizaid, who arrived in Pakistan on Friday, made the comments in talks with Musharraf at his office in Rawalpindi, the statement said. “(Abizaid) particularly lauded the role of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in the anti-terror campaign,” it said.
— Additional input from agencies
