Pakistan sentences 4 to death for bid to kill PM

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani court has sentenced four Islamist militants to death for an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz nearly two years ago, the official news agency reported.

An anti-terrorism court announcing the decision in Rawalpindi, a garrison town adjoining the capital Islamabad, also jailed three militant brothers for life while the eighth accused was acquitted, Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Aziz narrowly escaped assassination when a suicide bomber blew himself up next to his car in central Punjab province in July 2004.

Aziz was finance minister at the time and was campaigning for a by-election to win a seat in parliament to enable him to become prime minister.

An Islamist militant group with purported links to al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attack in which Aziz's driver and eight other people were killed.

The court announced the decision amid tight security in the presence of all eight men, the agency said.

Pakistan has seen a series of attacks by Islamist militants since President Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Musharraf himself has survived several al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts while militants tried to shoot the army chief of southern Pakistan in June 2004.

Pakistani security forces have arrested hundreds of al Qaeda militants and handed many of them over to the United States.

- REUTERS