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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Pakistan foils new plot to kill Perv |
| 2005-05-08 |
| Pakistani intelligence agents have foiled a new plot by Al-Qaeda members to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, security officials told AFP yesterday. Seven conspirators were arrested in a number of raids in central Punjab province in late April, one week before the capture of alleged Al-Qaeda No. 3 Abu Faraj Al-Libbi in a northwestern region, the officials said. The group included Mushtaq Ahmed, a junior air force official who escaped from jail late last year after being convicted of a key role in a 2003 attempt to eliminate Musharraf, and who was recaptured last week. "First we smashed the gang plotting a new attack on Musharraf and then a week later we netted two Arabs including Al-Libbi," a top intelligence official said. Military leader Musharraf, who has angered some Pakistanis with his support for the US war on terror, publicly accused Libyan national Al-Libbi of masterminding two previous failed attempts to assassinate him. Officials said the plotters in the latest bid were headed by a Pakistani Al-Qaeda member named Mohammad Arshad, who is an associate of Al-Libbi. "The group was planning a new attack on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi or Islamabad. They had assembled the explosive devices and they were to use them adopting a new method," the intelligence official said. He did not specify exactly how or when they planned to carry out the assassination attempt. "Mushtaq Ahmed was an important part of the group and we understand that the group's leader was in contact with Al-Libbi," the official added. "On their information explosives and all those things that they were to be used in the attempt were recovered." Officials said Thursday they had recaptured 26-year-old Ahmed, who was condemned to death in November for his role in the bombing of a bridge which collapsed moments after Musharraf's convoy passed through in December 2003. Musharraf survived a second attack in the same area about two weeks later on Christmas Day, when two suicide bombers rammed explosive-laden vehicles into the presidential motorcade, killing 15 people. Ahmed escaped from Chakala airbase near Islamabad soon after his conviction but was arrested on a tip-off last week on a bus at a motorway exit point at Salam, 160 kilometers south of Islamabad. He had changed his appearance by shaving off his beard, officials said. A security official said it was possible the arrest of Al-Libbi on Monday in Mardan town in North West Frontier Province was based on intelligence gleaned from those arrested in Punjab. "Almost a week later a separate raid was conducted in Mardan where security forces got hold of two Arabs, one of them Al-Libbi," the official told AFP. The official said the identity of the other Arab had not been established but he appeared to be a mid-level operator. "In follow-up raids security agencies picked up 10 Afghans but none of them is a big target," he said. Meanwhile, President Musharraf yesterday once again demanded the United Nations relocate all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan to their homeland. "Rather than the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) maintaining refugee camps in Pakistan, along the border areas, these should be relocated within Afghanistan," Musharraf said during his meeting with Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, UNHCR's goodwill ambassador in Islamabad. Currently about 3 million Afghans are residing in Pakistan. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Pakistanis that want to kill Musharraf: 7 down 14,999,993 to go |
| Posted by: DO 2005-05-08 12:13 |
| #1 I hope these assholes keep it up (though I certainly hope they're not successful). Whatever we would do to them is mild compared to what a pissed-off dictator will do. :-D They keep trying to kill Perv, he'll off Al-Q singlehandedly. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-05-08 01:24 |