Rockets Were Aimed At Karachi Airport
Police found four rockets Monday aimed at part of Karachi International Airport used by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, officials said.
Waqar Mulan, an airport security official, said the Chinese-made rockets were equipped with homemade launchers and a timing device for automatic firing.
He said a passer-by discovered the rockets and summoned police. The city's bomb squad defused them, Mulan added.
The rockets were aimed at the airport's Terminal One, which is used as a transport and supply hub for the U.S.-led coalition in support of operations in Afghanistan.
They were found about a half mile from the terminal in the city's Gulistan-e-Jahaur neighborhood, which has been a center of violence between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Police said the rockets were similar to one fired Saturday at the home of a Shiite Muslim, in which one person was injured.
Karachi is a center of Muslim extremist movements that have vowed to oppose President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on Islamic radicals and his support of the war against terrorism.
Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was kidnapped here Jan. 23 and his whereabouts remain unknown.
A prominent Islamic radical, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was arrested in the kidnapping and has admitted his involvement.
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