Pakistani police find two rockets near spy HQ

Islamabad, Oct 7: Police found two rockets close to the headquarters of Pakistan's top spy agency in Islamabad today, the interior minister said, just two days after two rockets were discovered close to the presidency and parliament.

The rockets were hidden in bushes on a hill close to the military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), but Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao denied reports that the ISI headquarters was the target.

''No it was not target,'' he told sources. ''These were 107 mm rockets and they have been defused.'' On Thursday, police recovered two Russian-made 107 mm rockets attached to mobile phones in a patch of green across a six-lane road from parliament and the presidency.

Authorities said those rockets were not target-specific and were probably aimed at spreading alarm in the capital.

Today, the authorities created confusion when some officials said the police had planted dud rockets to test security after the scare two days earlier, while others said the rockets were live ammunition.

On Wednesday night, a small explosive device exploded in a park near President Pervez Musharraf's army residence in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, adjoining Islamabad.

The military said the blast in the Rawalpindi park was unrelated to Musharraf or his military residence, Army House.

Authorities have not yet commented on who could be behind these incidents, although Islamist militants angered over Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terrorism have been blamed for such incidents in the past.

Musharraf has survived two al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts in Rawalpindi in 2003, but the killing of a rebellious tribal chieftain in southwest Baluchistan province during a stand-off with the army in August might have lengthened the Pakistani leader's list of potential enemies.

REUTERS