Pakistan's Prime Minister Escapes Assassination Attempt

Some might say that assassination attempts are par for the course in Pakistan - we witnessed the successful assassination of Bhutto and former President Musharraf escaped half a dozen attempts on his life, so today's attempt on the life of Pakistan's Prime Minister Gillani wouldn't be a shock, at least to most. Here's the very sketchy first details of this assassination attempt, from the article at Breitbart:

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday when several shots were fired at his motorcade, his spokesman said.
Spokesman Zahid Bashir told reporters that an unidentified gunman fired shots at the motorcade and two bullets struck his bullet-proof car.
"Several shots were fired. The prime minister is safe," Bashir said

.

Now, the next question is who tried this and it certainly doesn't appear to be al Qaeda or the Taliban. First off, al Qaeda rarely pulls off an assassination attempt with only one assassin and typically will use some sort of bomb in the mix. The Taliban also don't usually deal with lone assassins.

The interesting part of this will be who does claim responsibility and of course, the net effect of it on the government's position against terror. Just the other day here I scoffed at the Pakistani government's decision to suspend their military operations in the northwest due to the muslim holiday of Ramadan and I laughed at the fact that their enemies, the Taliban and al Qaeda, wouldn't skip a beat in their violence due to Ramadan and low and behold...the first day of Ramadan comes and someone tries to take out the Prime Minister.

Welcome to the world of terror, Mr. Gillani.

Pakistani premier escapes assassination attempt: spokesman

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday when several shots were fired at his motorcade, his spokesman said.
Spokesman Zahid Bashir told reporters that an unidentified gunman fired shots at the motorcade and two bullets struck his bullet-proof car.
"Several shots were fired. The prime minister is safe," Bashir said.
The motorcade came under fire on the road from Islamabad airport to Islamabad, police officials said. The gunman appears to have escaped into a nearby residential area.
Gillani had returned to Islamabad from the eastern city of Lahore, where he had gone to lobby for his party's co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in an election.
Gillani is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in Rawalpindi on Dec. 27 last year.