Pakistan Official Survives Assassination

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen wounded Pakistan’s religious affairs minister on Wednesday, in an attack near his office in in a busy commercial and residential neighborhood of Islamabad.

Two men on a motorcycle fired on the minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, in his government car just 20 yards from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. An escort police car had left early, apparently to have its fuel tank filled. The two gunmen escaped.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion focused on Taliban militants who are battling the Pakistani military in the country’s northwestern region.

“According to initial investigation, there is some group inside the security cordon,” Tahir Alam, the senior security superintendent of the Islamabad police, said, apparently meaning that the attackers were either residents of Islamabad or had been living there for some time.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?hpw

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The New York Times is getting sloppy. If the target survived, it wasn't an assassination!

[damntexdem]

1. I was going to remark on how extraordinary it was for someone to survive their assassination.

Yeah, many people survive assassination attempts, but very, very few survive actual assassinations.

[bushmeister0]

2. Hmm . . . can you say ISI?

This took place in a region not known for a big Talib presence. Note this paragraph:

"He (Dr. Abdullah Laghmani) and his agents helped connect the bombers who attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July 2008 to the Pakistani intelligence service, tracing a cellphone found in the wreckage to a facilitator in Kabul who was in direct telephone contact with a Pakistani intelligence official in Peshawar.

Pakistani officials repeatedly accused him of undermining their national security. Once, the Pakistani government asked that he removed from his position and handed over to face charges in Pakistan. Mr. Karzai declined the request."

But, our good friends the Pakistanis wouldn't do anything like that, right?

[oct2010]

4. Actually, it took place in Islamabad if you read the article

the attackers were either residents of Islamabad or had been living there for some time.

Mr. Kazmi, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, has been a vocal critic of the Taliban and other militants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?_r=1&hpw

Wasn't the Pak govt predicted to fall some time ago ? The mayor of islamabad is within reach if he leaves his fortified bunker complex.

[oct2010]

3. A religious affairs minister ? How high up the food chain coud he possibly be?

The revenge attacks are underway for what the government allowed to be snuffed out a few weeks ago.