Bomb Misses Pakistani President

A bomb exploded minutes after a motorcade carrying the Pakistani president passed a road near the capital on Sunday, but no one was hurt, officials said.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf earned the wrath of hardline Islamic groups after he choose to abandon the Taliban regime of neighboring Afghanistan and back the U.S.-led war against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda regime.

The blast damaged a bridge in Rawalpindi, about 10 miles from the capital Islamabad, but Musharraf was not harmed, state television PTV reported.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press that the president was returning to his home at Army House in Rawalpindi from the city's airport after a visit to the southern city of Karachi.

Ahmed said it was a bomb explosion and an investigation had begun.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman, confirmed that the explosion happened soon after the president's vehicle passed.

"His cavalcade had passed safely," he told AP. He did not say whether the explosion was a bomb and declined to elaborate on who might have carried out such an attack on the president.

GEO TV, a private network, reported the blast happened 10 minutes after Musharraf passed the spot in Rawalpindi, the capital's sister city.

Musharraf, the army chief, toppled an elected government in 1999 in a bloodless coup.

There have been at least two past attempts to assassinate the Pakistani leader.

Both attacks failed, one when a car packed with explosives failed to detonate as Musharraf passed on a congested road in the southern port city of Karachi. Five militants were arrested for involvement in that attack.