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| Thursday, 18 December 2003 |
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Pakistan sees al Qaeda hand in Musharraf murder bid ISLAMABAD, Wednesday (Reuters) Pakistani authorities suspect the hand of al Qaeda may be behind a weekend bid to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, officials said. But intelligence agents are also wondering if an internal leak gave the perpetrators the advance warning needed to plan the attack. Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, narrowly escaped Sunday's attack when a series of explosions ripped apart a bridge in the city of Rawalpindi just after his motorcade passed over it. Intelligence officials told Reuters they had no firm leads so far but suspicion was falling on al Qaeda or an allied Pakistani group, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Almi, several of whose members have already been convicted for trying to kill Musharraf. "The method used in the explosions points fingers towards them," said one intelligence official. "It is the handiwork of highly trained people and that's why we suspect them." Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said five explosive devices - of a type never used before in Pakistan - were placed under the bridge on Sunday. He called it the work of a "most expert" person. But intelligence agents are also wondering how the attackers knew which route the president would be taking as he returned home from the airport after a trip to Karachi, especially because the explosives may have been planted 12 hours before. "The question is how they got to know about the route so far in advance, and this is what needs to be found out," said one. The list of Musharraf's enemies is long. In September Arabic television broadcast an audio tape purportedly from al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri urging Pakistanis to overthrow Musharraf for supporting America. Several key al Qaeda members, including organisation number three Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, have been arrested inside Pakistan, often with the help of U.S. investigators. Hundreds of other suspected al Qaeda or Taliban members have also been rounded up after they fled Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban's overthrow in late 2001, officials say. Many have since been handed over to U.S. custody. Three members of al-Almi were convicted in October for another failed bid to kill Musharraf by parking an explosives-laden car along a route that his motorcade was to take during a visit to the southern city of Karachi. "We may also interrogate the three al-Almi members convicted for the previous attempt," another intelligence official said. Al-Almi is an offshoot of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which has long figured on a U.S. list of organisations deemed terrorist. Its parent organisation was once one of the most important groups fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, and many of its members are thought to have trained in al Qaeda training camps inside Afghanistan during Taliban rule. |
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