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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Assassination plot against Pakistani cabinet ministers foiled |
| 2004-08-15 |
| The arrests of two suspects in the Pakistani capital is said to have foiled a terror plot to assassinate senior Cabinet ministers and led to a series of raids against other militants, intelligence officials said Sunday. The suspects purportedly belong to a group linked to Al Qaeda network, accused in an assassination attempt in June against, the top general in Karachi that left 10 people dead. Meanwhile security agencies are hunting for Abu Farj, a Libyan believed to be al-Qaeda's commander in Pakistan, accused of masterminding two assassination attempts against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in December. Intelligence officials said that Abu Farj is believed to have trained Pakistani militants at an al-Qaida camp in the lawless tribal area of South Waziristan near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. Since mid-July, Pakistan has seized more than 30 terror suspects and uncovered valuable al-Qaida intelligence that has led to a dozen more arrests in Britain and a terror alert in the United States. As the counterterrorism operations have continued during the past week, Pakistani government officials have become increasingly guarded with information about the investigations. Intelligence agencies last week in Islamabad made a number of terrorist arrests and also seized rockets and missiles, a senior security official told reporters on condition of anonymity. The official has asserted that the suspects were planning to attack Saturday's official celebrations of Independence Day marking the 57th anniversary of Pakistan's freedom from British occupation, targeting important government installations. Two of the detained suspects were also plotting to kill senior Cabinet ministers including the ministers of foreign affairs, information and the interior said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said the arrests triggered about 10 more arrests in other parts of eastern Punjab province including in the town of Sargodha, and that more raids and arrests are on their way. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |