RAWALPINDI, Dec 26: President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped a two-pronged suicide attack on Thursday in which sixteen people were killed and as many as 50 were injured.

The dead include six police personnel and four armymen, who were on security duty. The list of the injured also includes nine cops.

It is not clear whether the death toll includes the assailants, as several unidentified bodies are still lying at the District Headquarters Hospital’s mortuary.

This was the closest attempt on the president’s life, who has so far escaped three assassination attempts, the last one only 11 days back.

The latest bid occurred 250 yards from the spot in Rawalpindi’s high-security cantonment area where an attempt was made on his life only on Dec 14.

The suicide attackers were close enough to their target to damage the windshield of the president’s bulletproof car. However, the president himself remained unscathed.

Another vehicle of the motorcade used for carrying the president’s security staff was also damaged.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and military experts have both started separate investigations into the suicide attacks.

The FBI experts on Friday visited the scene of the attacks and collected the leftover pieces of the vehicles used in the fatal strike.

The president was returning to his residence, Army House Rawalpindi, at the time of the incident, after attending the ministerial meeting of Organisation of Islamic Conference.

A van and a car tried to hit the convoy — one at the front of the motorcade, and the other from the rear — and both exploded without causing much damage to the motorcade.

The first explosion occurred at 1.42pm, the other a minute later. Each vehicle carried around 40 kilos of explosives. More than 15 vehicles, apart from those used by terrorists, were destroyed.

The debris of the vehicles used in the suicide attack, which had been wrecked to pieces, was scattered over a vast area. Blood was congealed on the floor of the gas filling stations.

A security source and a witness at the scene of the terror assault suggested that one suicide bomber was driving a white Suzuki van that emerged from the exit gate of Total gas station from Jhanda Chichi road, while another vehicle, an Alto car, sped towards the president’s convoy from a district police-run PSO filling station.

Quoting witnesses, the source said the attacker, who drove the Suzuki van, seemed to be in his 30s. “He was of medium height, clean-shaven and with a fair complexion.”

The van crushed to death constable Mohammad Saddiq when he attempted to stop the bomber’s van from driving out of the petrol station as the motorcade was just then crossing the spot, and rammed into one of its cars occupied by the newly-appointed MI chief, Lt-Gen Nadeem Taj, and then exploded.

The occupants of the car, including the MI chief, remained unhurt.

The other bomber, who appeared from the PSO filling station, was well-built and bearded, the source said, and went on to claim that he appeared to be a foreigner, and linked to some religious outfit. His car exploded yards away from the presidential car.

Part of the debris of the exploding car, which went flying in the air, landed on the windshield of the president’s car and damaged it.

Both the filling stations from where the attackers tried to hit the motorcade were destroyed.

The damaged cars, all blood-spattered, have been removed from the scene.

The security sources said the investigating teams have recovered two registration plates from the spot — presumed to be those of the van and the car, one of which is registered in the NWFP.

The investigating teams are trying to trace their owners.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The investigators have also collected some human body pieces lying in the compound of Civil Lines police station, which they believe were of the terrorist, who appeared from the PSO petrol station.

President Musharraf, hours after the attack, appeared on the state-run television to personally recount the incident. Wearing a navy blue suit he looked composed and unruffled.

He said he was now more determined to weed out extremists.

“We are fighting against extremism. We will continue to fight. My faith in Allah has strengthened, my resolve has increased,” he said.

He brushed aside speculation that it was a security lapse, saying it is difficult to control suicide bombers.

Gen Musharraf said he shared the grief of the families of those who laid down their lives protecting him. “I would do all I can to help them,” he vowed.

He dismissed a suggestion that the situation posed a threat for the forthcoming Saarc summit that is scheduled to begin in the capital from Jan 3.

The two latest assassination bids are being linked by some to Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Al-Zahwari’s call to overthrow Gen Musharraf, a source said. Al-Zahwari’s video message was released few months earlier.

The investigators are also trying to determine the possible role of a recent ban on six religious groups, who had been accused of involvement in sectarian killings.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali urged the countrymen to observe a thanksgiving day on Friday.

Four of the dead — inspector Shabeeb Abbas, SI traffic Sher Zmana, constable Sultan Mehmood and a civilian Aslam — were brought to the RGH. Another injured sobaidar, identified as Saeed-ur-Rehman, died in the RGH at night.

The injured treated at the RGH were identified as Muhammad Azam Butt, inspector, Muhammad Aslam, SI, Muhammad Fiaz, traffic staff, Mohib Murtaza, constable, Zaheer Abbas, constable, Wasim Akhtar, Dooran Shah, Mohammad Qadeer, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Riaz, Qazi Ghulam and another man who has not yet been identified.

The dead brought to the District Headquarters Hospital were identified as Muhammad Aziz, Sajjad Akbar, Naik Nasir Mehmood and Muhammad Saddiq. Three bodies were still to be identified as they had been mutilated beyond recognition.