Pakistan uncovers Musharraf plot on al Qaeda trail

Pakistani intelligence officials said today they had foiled a new conspiracy to kill President Pervez Musharraf with a series of arrests, including the capture of al Qaeda's third most senior commander.

US agents and Pakistani authorities were interrogating al Qaeda Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, after he was run to ground in the rugged North West Frontier Province on Monday, officials said.

But they say it was the recapture this week of Mushtaq Ahmed that led to a swoop in Lahore on Wednesday that netted eight people planning a fresh assassination hit on Musharraf.

A ninth was picked up in Lahore on Thursday morning. They all belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Sunni militant group that has forged links with al Qaeda.

Ahmed escaped custody in December after being sentenced to death for his role in one of two attempts on the Musharraf's life masterminded by Liby in December 2003.

The ease with which Ahmed escaped raised embarrassing questions over security at the Rawalpindi air base where he was being held, and the government kept quiet about it for weeks.

He escaped by breaking a window, while supposedly performing his ablutions for early morning prayers.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao earlier dismissed reports that the recent arrests had uncovered a new plot against Musharraf, but he said weapons, including grenades, were seized during the Lahore swoop.

US officials describe Liby as the successor to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - the al Qaeda No 3 arrested in Pakistan in March 2003. They hope his capture could help them trace the whereabouts of bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Intelligence sources say al Liby is a friend of Mohammed, the alleged brain behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"US intelligence agents have been part of the operation to catch al Liby," said one intelligence official. "Al Liby is being interrogated jointly by a US and Pakistani team." Al Liby was captured along with a handful of fighters, including an as yet unidentified al Qaeda figure who also carries a US reward of several million dollars, one senior Pakistani official said.

The Libyan's association with bin Laden dates to the jihad, or holy war, that the United States covertly backed against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and to Sudan, where the al Qaeda chief and his cohorts were based in the early 1990s.

Speaking during a visit to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack that killed his driver last July, was non-committal when asked by reporters whether al Liby might lead investigators to bin Laden.

"We have no idea about bin Laden. But certainly Mr Al Liby was a senior member of al Qaeda and we were on the lookout for him for a while and interrogations are in progress," Aziz said.

How many of the suspects detained in recent days are actual al Qaeda members, Arab or foreign nationals who have joined bin Laden's Islamist network, is unknown.

Musharraf has repeatedly said his security forces have "broken the back" of al Qaeda and its allies among Pakistan's militant groups over the past year.

Musharraf is regarded as a key US ally and a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Pakistan, while his efforts to make peace over Kashmir with India has made him even more unpopular among some extremists.

Pakistan has arrested and killed hundreds of al Qaeda militants in the past three years, but bin Laden's network struck back by enlisting Pakistani fighters.

Bin Laden had a ready-made pool of recruits in Pakistan, as its Sunni Muslim extremist groups share a similar world view, while militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir attended al Qaeda training camps on the Afghan-Pakistan border before 2001.

Most captured al Qaeda members have been handed over to the United States.

- REUTERS