Six held for bids to kill Musharraf
Pakistani security forces have arrested six people in connection with last month’s bombing attacks aimed at President Pervez Musharraf, intelligence officials said.
The men belong to Jaish-e-Muhammad, a group that renamed itself Khudam-e-Islam after being outlawed by Musharraf in 2002. The group also has close ties with the former Taliban rulers of neighbouring Afghanistan and is fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
Musharraf narrowly survived two assassination attempts in December.
On Christmas day, car bombers attacked Musharraf’s motorcade, killing at least 12 people besides themselves.
Officials said the two cars used in the attack were driven out of two petrol stations just 200 metres from a bridge on a main road in the city of Rawalpindi where Musharraf escaped a bombing on 14 December.
One of the bombers in the 25 December attack has been identified as a Kashmiri and another as an Afghan. The officials said the attack appeared to have been carried out by a network of Kashmiri and Afghan groups, linked to “international terror groups”.
Political stance
Jasim Taqi, a Pakistani writer and political analyst told Aljazeera.net the attempted assassinations were related to Musharraf’s stance against Muslim groups and his concessions to the US and India.
Taqi said the president’s policy had generated resentment in the army and organisations backed by the Pakistani Intelligence. They feared Musharraf might sacrifice Kashmir and the nuclear programme due to pressure from New Delhi,he said.