A top Inter-Services Intelligence official had a narrow escape in an attempted suicide attack outside the Pakistani spy agency's headquarters when the bomber's explosive vest failed to detonate, sources said on Thursday.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday morning, was largely suppressed in the media.
Police officials only said they had found and defused a suicide vest in a forested area at Shakarparian, located a short distance from the ISI's headquarters at Aabpara.
The bomber jumped in the path of the motorcade of one of the senior most officials of the ISI as it was on its way to the headquarters of the spy agency shortly before 9 am on Tuesday but his vest failed to detonate for unknown reasons, sources said.
The attempt on the life of the ISI official, who was not identified, occurred near an office of the Capital Development Authority, located adjacent to the spy agency's headquarters.
The official's security detail ensured that the motorcade sped into the heavily fortified headquarters, which is ringed by fences and a wall of sand bags.
The security personnel came out to chase the would-be suicide bomber only after the official was safely inside the ISI compound, but by then the attacker had fled into a forested area located on one side of nearby Kashmir Highway.
The Dawn newspaper was the only daily to report the incident but buried it in the metro section. It quoted security and police sources as refusing to identify the ISI official who was targetted.
It said vehicles in the ISI official's motorcade had applied brakes but sped into "safety of ISI headquarters" as the bomber "fiddled with two triggering devices in his hands".
"His (the ISI officer's) security was the first priority with his escort," one source told the newspaper. ISI personnel and police later combed the forested area and found the abandoned suicide vest, which had seven kg of C4 explosives, two detonators and a nine-volt battery.
The wire to the battery was found to be disconnected and this might have been the reason that the trigger did not work, a source told the Dawn.
Despite cordoning off the forested area, police were unable to trace the attacker. A police statement issued on Tuesday only said a suicide jacket had been found in the wooded area across the Kashmir Highway but did not refer to the assassination attempt.
Police also issued a sketch of the bomber prepared with the help of a witness. Witnesses described the would-be bomber as a short man with light beard, curly hair and fair complexion. His appearance suggested he could be a Pashtun.
A case was registered at Aabpara police station against unidentified attackers.
