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Gunmen shoot at Pakistani President Musharraf's plane

Friday, July 6, 2007

Map of Pakistan showing Rawalpindi (near Islamabad).

During a flight Friday from Chaklala Airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan to Balochistan province, President Pervez Musharraf's plane was shot at from a rooftop near the flight path. Musharraf was flying to Balochistan province to observe the effects of recent flooding in the area.

The Pakistani government has officially denied the plane came under fire, but a Paksitani intelligence officer indicated, off the record, that an attempt of Mushaffaf's life had occurred. Musharraf's plane arrived safely at its destination. However, sources say that Intelligence agencies in Pakistan are investigating into possible connection between attack on the plane and the siege of Lal Masjid.

Police have cordoned off a house in Rawalpindi to investigate the incident. Reuters news agency had a photographer in the area at the time, and reported seeing two guns on the roof of the house, one of them an anti-aircraft gun, which had been mounted on the roof. The other gun was reported to be a machinegun. Deputy Inspector General of police Marwat Ali Shah confirmed that an anti-aircraft gun, a machine gun and ammunition had been recovered from the home.

Local residents reported hearing the sound of gunfire. "Everyone heard a firing sound," Ishaq Ahmed told BBC News. "The firing sound was like a bomb blast. It was that kind of sound." Some witnesses claimed that they saw a person along with a woman and two kids escaping on a motorbike after the incident.

General Musharraf has survived two previous attempts on his life, carried out on December 14, 2003 by al-Qaeda-linked militants. There is no indication or claim of responsibility, as yet, as to who carried out the latest attack.

Sources

 

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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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