Some unidentified gunmen in Asghar Mall area here on Friday unsuccessfully attempted to hit an aircraft. The incident happened several minutes after President Musharraf's plane had passed the house after taking off from Chaklala.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that the aircraft targeted by the gunmen was carrying the president after it took off from Chaklala airport for Turbat. However, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) categorically denied any attack on President General Musharraf's aircraft. "There was no firing at the President's plane. He is in Turbat," said Major General Waheed Arshad, Director-General of the ISPR.
Law enforcement agencies raided a vacant house, No O/1026/A-7, opposite Hayat Wali Clinic on Asghar Mall and recovered two anti-aircraft guns and a machine-gun. People in this neighbourhood said they had spotted two large guns on the rooftop of the two-storey house and heard the gun shots. They said they had also heard an explosion a little earlier.
AFP adds: Gunmen fired on President Pervez Musharraf's plane using an improvised Taliban-style antiaircraft gun after the plane took off from a military airbase on Friday, intelligence officials said. Musharraf was, however, unharmed and the shots did not hit the aircraft, the officials.
"It was an unsuccessful attempt to shoot the President's plane," one official told AFP. Musharraf flew from the Chaklala military base in Rawalpindi to Sindh and Balochistan to visit people affected by recent floods, the military said in a statement.
Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad denied that the shots had targeted Musharraf's plane. "It was not related to the president," he told AFP. But intelligence officials dealing directly with the incident insisted Musharraf's plane was the target.
Security forces arrested a suspect and recovered the weapon and a crudely-made wooden tripod from the flat roof of a house in Rawalpindi, a security official said. "The shots were fired from a house that was rented by a couple some days ago. They have arrested one suspect and taken into possession a machine-gun which was used as an antiaircraft weapon," one security official said. The 14.5 mm calibre weapon was found on the tripod on the roof. It had been specially modified to increase its range, the official added.
But he said that it did not have enough range to hit the President's plane. "It is a weapon similar to those used by the Taliban in Afghanistan," the official said. "The man and woman who rented the house fled by the time security forces got to the scene. The suspect (a third person) was arrested near the scene," he said.
Officials had earlier said that the incident happened several minutes after Musharraf's plane had passed the house after taking off from Chaklala. Security officials said it was "possible that the incident was against the backdrop of the episode of Lal Masjid."