Pakistan PM escapes assassination attempt

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani escaped an apparent assassination attempt when two shots hit his motorcade Wednesday, just three days before the country's presidential election.

Officials said Gilani was not in the targeted car at the time, but the brazen daytime attack underscored the turmoil and violence that have been shadowing the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation.

Gilani's spokesman initially said he was in the hit vehicle but later declined to confirm that, amid the confusion surrounding the shooting in Rawalpindi, the garrison town home to Pakistan military headquarters.

"Two bullets hit the window glass of the bulletproof car," the spokesman, Zahid Bashir, told AFP. "By the grace of Allah, the prime minister is...