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Pakistan on the edge

Nirupama Subramanian

Rockets and blast likely connected, says official

ISLAMABAD: After rumours of a coup two weeks ago, the discovery of two live rockets in the high security zone here and an explosion in a Rawalpindi park close to President Pervez Musharraf's home the night before have put Pakistan on the edge.

"Something is definitely going on," commented the Daily Times.

Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah has said the blast and the rockets found near the National Assembly were most likely connected. Investigators are still are trying to ascertain how the rockets could have been transported into the high-security zone, where the President's Office, the Prime Minister's Office and other government buildings aside from the National Assembly are located.

The two rockets were of 107 mm calibre, a type used extensively in the Soviet-Afghan war, with the capability of hitting a target at a maximum distance of 200 metres.

After the discovery of the rockets, speculation is widespread that Gen. Pervez Musharraf had escaped another plot to kill him. He escaped two assassination bids in 2003, described in graphic detail in his memoirs "In the Line of Fire."

Speculation dismissed

The place where the rockets were found was close to the route his motorcade would have taken out of his office to a nearby conference hall where he was to address a gathering on the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. Gen. Musharraf reached the venue by helicopter. But officials were too quick to dismiss the theory saying it was unlikely that those who had placed the rockets had any specific target in mind. The rockets did not have launchers, and a mobile phone found with them was an unlikely trigger, they said.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said the rockets could have been an attempt to "tarnish" the success of Gen. Musharraf's recent visit abroad, while Mr. Shah said it was "an attempt to create harassment" and to cause panic and confusion. Following the blast close to Gen. Musharraf's home, investigators found more explosive substances in the area. Gen. Musharraf has not commented on either the explosion or the discovery of the rockets. No one has yet ventured a guess on who could have been behind the two incidents, though there is awareness the President has many enemies.

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