Author: AFP
Publication: Australian Broadcasting
Corporation
Date: June 10, 2004
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1129325.htm
Gunmen have opened fire on the convoy
of a senior Pakistani general in the troubled port of Karachi, killing
10 members of the security forces and a bystander but missing the targeted
officer.
It is the sixth deadly attack in
Karachi in just over a month and the first aimed at a senior military figure.
Nobody has claimed responsibility
but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants who have been trying to kill
Pakistan's president and army chief, Pervez Musharraf.
Karachi corps commander Major General
Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the most senior officer in southern Sindh province,
was in the convoy being driven through the upmarket Clifton neighbourhood.
The military says the convoy came
under intense fire from unknown gunmen at 8:45am local time.
"Seven army men were killed in the
attack and the others were policemen and a pedestrian," military spokesman
Major General Shaukat Sultan said.
Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil
says three policemen have been killed and three others wounded.
Mr Jamil says a bomb exploded in
the same area after the shooting, but there are no casualties as a result
of the blast.
Police also defused a second bomb
before it could explode in the same area.
Pakistan's largest city is the scene
of the first of three attempts to blow up Mr Musharraf's motorcade over
the past two years.
Militants, angered at Islamabad's
cooperation with the US in cracking down on Al Qaeda and other Islamic
insurgents, tried to attack Mr Musharraf's car as he travelled from Karachi's
airport in April 2002.
They tried and failed again twice
last December in Rawalpindi.
