Via guardian.co.uk -
The sense of crisis gripping Pakistan grew yesterday as a bloody siege of a mosque stretched into its fourth day, suspected militants targeted President Pervez Musharraf's plane, and a suicide bomber killed six soldiers near the Afghan border.
Gunfire was heard in a congested district of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, in the morning shortly after a plane carrying General Musharraf took off. The aircraft was not hit and police traced the shots to a nearby house where they found an assault rifle and an anti-aircraft gun on the roof.
Security officials described it as a failed assassination attempt, but Major General Waheed Arshad, the chief military spokesman, said that only an AK-47 had been discharged, suggesting the president was in limited danger.
Gen Musharraf's plane landed safely in Baluchistan province, where recent floods killed 200 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
He has already survived two assassination attempts, a fact that has burnished his reputation as a warrior against militancy among his western allies.
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