Pakistan's president said junior army and air force personnel were involved in an assassination attempt against him in December and that the suspects have been captured. Gen. Pervez Musharraf made the comments in an interview aired Thursday on Pakistan's private Geo television network. He did not elaborate on the men's role or say when they were caught, but said they will face a trial soon in a military court. "Some of them are not even for any religious motivation. Some of them are for money," Musharraf said. Musharraf, who has angered hardliners for supporting the U.S.-led war on terrorism, was the target of a Dec. 14 attack when a powerful bomb exploded moments after his motorcade passed over a bridge near the capital. No one was killed or injured. Eleven days later, two suicide bombers tried to kill Musharraf again on the same road by ramming his motorcade with explosive-laden vehicles. The president was unhurt but 16 people, mostly policemen, were killed. Asked if the suspects were directly involved in the assassination attempts, Musharraf said: "For the bridge incident, yes." | So the jihadi types they busted last week were involved with the suicide bombing. Makes sense, the bridge bomb had "professional" written all over it, I thought the military was behind that one. |
He said he was "200 percent sure" that no senior-ranking officers were involved. "We know exactly who is involved. We know (the) entire picture of both the actions," he said. Sounds like somebody screamed talked. |
In March, Musharraf said a Libyan member of al-Qaida was behind the attacks. But in the Thursday interview he said the mastermind was Pakistani and the only suspect still at large. "The only person not there is this mastermind ... who planned it. That man is still at large. We will get him," the president said. "We know exactly who he is." Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan confirmed the arrests but offered few details. "They were junior ranking people, and none among them was an officer," he told The Associated Press. Sultan said the number of detainees was in single figures. "These people are still being interrogated, and I cannot share other details with the media at this stage," he said. Pakistani authorities have previously said that security agencies have arrested some men from other Islamic militant groups for the December attacks against Musharraf, although none so far has been charged or produced before a court. | That would be the car boomers |
Musharraf said that although the suspects in the attacks would be tried in a military court, the proceedings would be open. "It will be open, but it will be in a military court and the whole nation will see it," he said. | Show trial, the verdict is already written. |
Musharraf enraged hardliners - including elements in the military and intelligence services - by ending Pakistan's support of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America. He then backed the U.S.-led war on terrorism that ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida in late 2001. |