Gunfire Reported Near Musharraf Plane

There were reports Friday of rooftop gunfire from a house near Islamabad airport about the time Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s plane was landing.

CNN reported police, checking on the gunfire report, found two machine guns on the rooftop and other weapons in the house in neighboring Rawalpindi, near the Islamabad airport.

Quoting Pakistani intelligence sources, CNN said police were alerted by reports of gunfire which came in around the Musharraf’s plane was landing.

It was first believed the weapons were anti-aircraft guns but they were later found to be improvised machine guns such as those Taliban militants use in Afghanistan, the report said.

The sources told CNN the weapons were not powerful enough to strike a plane from the house’s location.

Pakistani military denied any connection between the weapons and an attempt on Musharraf, the report said.

The incident comes when Pakistani forces are trying to flush out the remaining radical Islamic students inside a besieged mosque in Islamabad. The mosque has been occupied for months by the students to press their demand for imposition of Islamic laws in the capital. Earlier this week, there were fierce gun battles with government forces in which about two dozen people died.