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Another brigadier survives terror attack

* Gunmen target official’s personal vehicle
* Injured brigadier, driver in stable condition

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: Two unidentified gunmen attacked an army vehicle on Friday, injuring an army brigadier and his driver in the federal capital, said police officials.

The gunmen – who were riding a motorcycle and fled after the attack – targeted Brig Sohail and his driver, Muhammad Ramzan, when they left Sohail’s house in Sector I-8/4 at around 9:30am.

Sohail and Ramzan were rushed to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences – where they were given first aid. Ramzan was later shifted to CMH Rawalpindi and Sohail to a Pakistan Navy hospital.

Hospital sources said Sohail had been shot in the left arm and abdomen, and Ramzan had been shot in the neck – but both were out of danger.

SSP Tahir Alam Khan told journalists that police found a pistol and nine shells at the crime scene. He said although a search operation had been launched, no arrests had been made yet.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the security establishment has been in the crosshairs of increasingly brazen attacks underscoring the extremists’ reach in the frontline state of the US-led war on terror.

It was the third such attack in a month in Islamabad since the launch of an operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

On October 22, a brigadier on leave was shot dead. On October 27, a gunman opened fire on a car carrying another brigadier, although no one was wounded.

Tensions are high in the capital where checkpoints have mushroomed and high-value targets have increasingly disappeared behind giant concrete blast walls following a two-month spike in bloodshed.

The army has vowed to continue the South Waziristan offensive despite the increase in attacks. The military says hundreds of Taliban have been killed in the operation and hundreds more wounded. A Taliban spokesman, however, disputed the army’s claims earlier this week, saying the group had not lost even a dozen members.

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