NYT : Two Blasts Target Pakistani Military

Two Blasts Target Pakistani Military

By CARLOTTA GALL | November 24, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 24 — Two suicide car bombers attacked military targets this morning in Rawalpindi, the site of military headquarters, killing at least 15 service personnel, a military spokesman said. The bombings raise tensions in the country, which is already beset with political and security problems.

The attacks were the latest in a series of attacks on the army and intelligence service that have been linked to militants fighting an insurgency in north-western Pakistan. Militants fighting in the Swat valley, a tourist spot just several hours drive from the capital, are under pressure from a large-scale military operation mounted last week to push them out of towns and villages in the region. The military said Friday that it had pushed the militants out of a strategic town of Alpuri, which they had occupied several weeks ago.

The bombings also come as the country entered its fourth week of political turmoil under de facto martial law, imposed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. While General Musharraf said he is trying to fight terrorism, his opponents accuse him of using his extraordinary powers primarily to secure another presidential term for himself. He recently dismissed the Supreme Court and appointed a new one packed with supporters who have removed judicial obstacles to his remaining in power. Police have been deployed in large numbers to detain members of the judiciary and lawyers’ movement, and opposition political parties over the last three weeks.

The Election Commission today confirmed General Musharraf as the winner of the Oct. 6 presidential election, following a ruling by the newly appointed Supreme Court dismissing challenges to his eligibility to stand for another five year term as president while still holding the top army post. The court ordered General Musharraf to resign as chief of the army before taking the oath as president. The Attorney General, Malik Abdul Qayyum, talking to local news channels, said the president may take the oath on Wednesday.

A number of opposition parties met today and said they would boycott the parliamentary elections set for Jan. 8 unless their demands for the lifting of emergency rule were met within four days. Among them is the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has announced he will return from exile in Saudi Arabia to his home town of Lahore on Sunday. But political parties were also scrambling to meet the Monday deadline for candidates to submit their election papers.

One of today’s bombings occurred when a small car rammed a bus full of intelligence personnel just as it was entering the gate of Hamza Camp, a walled compound where the intelligence agency, the InterServices Intelligence, and Military Intelligence maintain offices and residential buildings. The bus was packed with security personnel arriving for work.

Fifteen people on the bus died, as did the suicide bomber, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the chief military spokesman.

Minutes earlier another suicide bomber in a car was turned away from a check point near a side entrance to the army General Head Quarters several miles away in another part of Rawalpindi, the garrison town just south of the capital. As he turned the car, he detonated the bomb, killing himself and wounding three army personnel manning the checkpoint. The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed official at the scene, reported that as many as 35 people died altogether, 33 in the bus and two more at the checkpoint.

The bombings follow a pattern of recent suicide attacks on special forces and intelligence personnel that military officials say is a sign that militants are hitting back at the forces that are pursuing them the hardest in what is an escalating struggle. A bomber blew himself up in September in the mess hall of Pakistan’s American-trained special forces unit, the Special Services Group, killing at least 15 men and wounding more.

Also in September, two bombers attacked targets near the military head quarters in Rawalpindi, killing 25. One of the bombers boarded a bus taking personnel from the InterServices Intelligence to work and killed 18 intelligence workers. On Nov. 1, a bomber on a motorbike rammed an Air Force bus in the town of Sargodha, killing himself and eight people.