Bomb Misses Pakistani Premier

A powerful bomb Sunday shattered a bridge and killed four people shortly before Prime Minister was to cross it. Police said a delay aat home saved the leader from the assassination attempt.

The government said the bombing, which also left three people wounded and two missing in ruble, was carried out by an ethnic part formerly allied with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The roar of the 10 a.m. explosion could be heard for miles around Raiwind, the site of Sharif’s private residence, 13 miles from Lahore. Police said the bomb exploded at the time he normally crosses the bridge.

Police suspect that the ethnic Mohajir National Movement, MQM, is responsible of the bombing. A police source speaking on condition of anonymity said three MQM workers have been arrested in the southern city of Karachi in connection with the blast.

MQM leaders say blaming their group is another attempt by Sharif’s government to destroy their political base.

“The government wants to use this incident to launch a fresh crackdown on our party,” said Farooq Sattar, an MQM spokesmam.

Sharif blames the MQM for most of the violence in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and, with 14 million people, Pakistan’s largest city. Karachi has been controlled by the MQM since the mid-1980s. More than 1,000 people died in political and religious violence there last year.

In other violence, gunmen opened fire as Shiite Muslim worshipers knelt in prayer at a mosque in eastern Punjab province today, killing 15 people and wounding at least 25 others, police said.

No on immediately took responsibility.

The attack in Shah Jamal, about 180 miles south of Lahore, occurred as 100 Shiite Muslims were finishing their morning prayers that marked the beginning of their daylong fast for Ramadan.