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Afghanistan/South Asia
LeJ member detained in Musharraf assassination plot
2005-03-15
Pakistani security agencies have arrested a member of an outlawed militant group suspected of involvement in a December 2003 attempt to kill President Pervez Musharraf, an intelligence official said on Tuesday. Mufti Eid Muhammad, a member of the banned Sunni Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was arrested in Lahore about three weeks ago, said the official, who asked not to be named. He said Muhammad was a bomb expert believed to have helped plant explosives under a bridge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi which were detonated on Dec. 14, 2003, seconds after Musharraf's motorcade passed over it.

The intelligence official said that under interrogation Muhammad had also confessed to bombing a bridge on Jan. 3, 1999, which then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been due to cross. Last December, a military court convicted an army non-commissioned officer and a private of involvement in the first attempt. The military has said up to four low-ranking army personnel and six low-rank air force personnel were on trial in connection with this bombing, but details have not been made public. In January, a junior-rank member of the air force escaped from military detention after being convicted of involvement in the bridge bombing. Among those held in connection with the second attempt on Musharraf's life were several members of another al Qaeda-linked militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Posted by:Dan Darling

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