The threat of Pakistan's suicide bombers

By Owen Bennett-Jones BBC News, Islamabad

So far Pakistan's leaders have been lucky.

Within the last 12 months two assassination attempts on the military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and one on the man who is now Prime Minster, Shaukat Aziz, have come desperately close.

PM Shaukat Aziz - 'a miracle' he survived suicide attack

Two of the attacks were the work of suicide bombers. Bodyguards and drivers were killed - but the primary targets walked away without a scratch.

Shaukat Aziz was in an armoured-plated car when, last August, a man in his twenties walked up, raised his fist in the air and triggered explosives strapped around his waist.

"We heard a thud and there was smoke and dust," Mr Aziz told me recently in the prime minister's house, when I was interviewing him for the Assignment programme on the BBC World Service.

His driver died. He survived.

"It was a miracle. God gives you a life and God takes it away," Mr Aziz said.

That bomber, like many of those plotting either to kill the leadership or to carry out sectarian attacks, are Pakistanis filled with a mission to fight jihad or holy war.

Take Mohammed Akbar Khan who comes from a family of fish traders in Karachi.

They are middle-class and live in a five-storey house.

Many young men are said to be indoctrinated by radical clerics

Akbar was always known to be devout. He wore a beard and said his prayers regularly.

But none of his relatives realised how far he had gone down the path of militancy.

In fact his father thought that Akbar's new wife and young baby meant he was focusing on more worldly matters.

Then one morning last May he left home, walked into a Shia mosque in Karachi and blew himself up, killing 20 worshippers.

"It was a huge shock," said his brother "it's given our family a bad name."

Place in heaven

The problem for the authorities is that have no effective way of profiling would-be suicide bombers.

Karachi Police Chief Tariq Jameel says they are mostly young men who have been indoctrinated by mullahs in radical mosques.

Apart from that they have little in common.

"Their level of education is different; they speak different languages and belong to different areas," he said.

The attacks on Gen Musharraf and other top figures reflect the anger of Pakistan's Muslim militants over the president's decision to back America after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

There were some suggestions that when Musharraf's assassination attempts took place that low ranking air force officials were involved Talat Hussein, journalist

He is, in their eyes, a traitor to Islam.

Just as in Iraq or the Palestinian occupied territories, the suicide bombers believe they are martyrs guaranteed a place in heaven.

Ironically, some of Pakistan's Muslim militants were trained by the army itself.

Despite official denials, officials privately admit that for the past 15 years the Pakistani military has recruited young religious zealots and given them the knowledge and weaponry to fight the Indian army in Kashmir.

Ever since 11 September that policy has become unsustainable.

While many in Pakistan see the struggle for Kashmir as more important even than the Palestinian issue, Western governments have different priorities.

Increasingly Washington sees the Pakistani-based Kashmiri militants not as freedom fighters but as terrorists.

Under US pressure the Pakistan army has scaled back its support for militants groups which want to fight in Kashmir. The government insists this is a genuine and permanent policy shift.

"We turned that corner a long time back," said Faisal Saleh Hyat, Pakistan's Minster for Kashmir Affairs.

"We have banned these organisations. They are not allowed to go all over Pakistan's preaching and advocating jihad."

Many zealots were trained to fight Indian forces in Kashmir

Others believe it's more accurate to say the support for the insurgency has merely been suspended.

Either way the militants themselves are angry with the army's new position and have been turning their sights on Musharraf and his senior colleagues.

The army and al-Qaeda

There is even opposition to Gen Musharraf within the traditionally well-disciplined Pakistan army.

A group of six army officers, including two colonels, has been detained for suspected links to al-Qaeda.

Officials said that one of the six, Major Adil Qudooz, was arrested for giving sanctuary to the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

There are fears that the penetration of the armed services goes deeper still.

"There were some suggestions that when Musharraf's assassination attempts took place that low ranking air force officials were involved," says Talat Hussein, an Islamabad based journalist with good contacts in the military.

"That is something that Gen Musharraf has himself authenticated.

"If I were in Gen Musharraf's position I would really be looking at this entire structure with a hawk's eye," Mr Hussein advises.

Gen Musharraf has repeatedly said that he wants to create a tolerant and moderate Pakistan.

Even if some in the United States say he could do more, there is no doubt that he is acting against the radical fringes of Pakistani society.

The attempts on his life have helped convince the general that Pakistan has an enemy within.

The risks are real. So far Gen Musharraf and his senior colleagues have survived intact.

But many believe it is only a matter of time before the suicide bombers find their mark.