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Top Pakistan general killed in suicide attack

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army’s Surgeon-General, Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, was killed with seven others when a suicide bomber blew himself up near his staff car at a busy intersection in Rawalpindi on Monday afternoon.

The bombing, and another attack on the office of an international aid organisation in the North West Frontier Province that killed four persons, underlined the challenges for the yet-to-be-formed government by the victors of the February 18 elections.

Lt. Gen. Baig was the head of the Army Medical Corps. His security guard and driver were also killed in the attack on Rawalpindi’s Mall Road during the afternoon rush hour.

Five civilians in surrounding cars also died in the attack, and at least 20 persons were wounded. Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said it was a “targeted killing” by the suicide bomber.

“He was waiting for a target and he saw the opportunity when he saw the staff car of the general waiting at the signal, and he came and blew himself up,” Maj-Gen. Abbas said. The spokesman said the military did not anticipate an attack in an “open area” like the Mall Road, but the Army would have to improve the security of the area as well as its senior officers.

Plan International, an aid organisation, suspended operations in Pakistan after an attack on its office in Mansehra in the NWFP killed at least four employees and left eight critically wounded.

The unidentified attackers reportedly herded the employees together and began firing at them, and then threw grenades into the building and in the car park, destroying most of the vehicles.

The attacks underscored the enormity of the challenge that militancy and terrorism pose for the new government, the formation of which is still under discussion between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack for its “callousness”.

But the PML (N) made a direct call for reviewing Pakistan’s participation in the United States-led “war on terror”.

Spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said the attack was yet another indicator of the “flawed” policies of President Pervez Musharraf “that have made the armed forces of the country a target”.

He called on retired Gen. Musharraf to step down and leave it to the democratically elected government to “rethink the entire strategy for combating terrorism”.

Mr. Iqbal called for a strategy to eradicate terrorism “but in a manner that our country is not imperilled”.

In a sign of U.S. concerns about policy change in Pakistan and its impact on the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson has been engaged in hectic talks with the victors of the election on safeguarding American interests.

After meetings with Mr. Zardari last week, Ms. Patterson called on PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif on Monday morning for the first time since the election results, and the embassy has been at pains to deny accusation that these interactions amount to “meddling” with the will of the Pakistani people.

According to a U.S. Embassy press release, Ms. Patterson communicated to Mr. Sharif that Washington respected the choice of the Pakistani people and its readiness “to work with whatever coalition is formed”.

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