ISLAMABAD, 27 December 2003 — Pakistani investigators have identified at least one of the three suicide bombers who targeted President Pervez Musharraf’s convoy on Thursday and killed 15 people.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat declined to release the bomber’s name, citing security reasons. He said evidence from the scene of the attack suggested at least one of the bombers was a foreigner.
Musharraf was unhurt in the attack that happened just a few hundred meters from the site of the previous bombing Dec. 14 in Rawalpindi.
Initially, officials said there were only two attackers, who tried to ram the president’s motorcade in two pickup trucks, each loaded with 20 to 30 kilograms (45 to 65 pounds) of explosives. They got close enough to crack the windshield on Musharraf’s limousine.
“The bodies of three suicide attackers have been found,” Hayyat told the Senate yesterday.
One of the wounded in the attack died yesterday, bringing the death toll to 15, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said.
Investigators sifting through the carnage found what they believe is the skin from the face of one of the assailants, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. “It appears that he is not a Pakistani,” Ahmed said. He said witnesses told police the attackers had small beards and long hair.
Analysts and politicians have questioned how attackers could have got details of Musharraf’s movements to allow them to mount two attacks in so short a time in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s army.
“It is the most serious breach in security since President Musharraf took power four years ago,” said Mushahid Hussain, a senator from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
