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Two Rockets Found Near Pakistani Parliament | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistani police found two rockets and launchers on Thursday near parliament house in the capital Islamabad, a day after a blast in a park near President Pervez Musharraf’s residence in an adjoining city.

The rockets were found in a patch of green across the road from parliament and main government buildings.

“We have recovered two rockets along with launchers,” a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The rockets have been defused.”

The parliament is not in session.

Police and the army cordoned off roads leading to parliament house and investigations have started, a senior police official said.

Just behind the parliament are the official residences of the president and prime minister. However, it was immediately not clear whether President Pervez Musharraf or Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were present there.

“We have detained a few people for questioning,” the senior police official said.

Witnesses saw police whisking away in police buses scores of laborers working at a nearby construction site.

The launchers were recovered a day after a small explosive device exploded in a park near Musharraf’s army residence in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, adjoining Islamabad.

The military said the blast was unrelated to Musharraf or the army house where he is living.

Musharraf, whose cooperation with the United States in its war against terrorism has put him at the top of an al Qaeda hit list, survived two assassination attempts in December 2003.

The Pakistani leader returned at the weekend from a three-week overseas trip, during which he launched his memoir “In the Line of Fire” and held talks with President George W. Bush.

Musharraf has held onto his role as army chief since coming to power in a bloodless military coup seven years ago, and was snubbed by major democracies round the world until he was propelled to the front of the world stage in 2001 by the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Bush persuaded Musharraf to help a U.S.-led invasion force topple the ruling Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan for harboring al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.