Pakistan holds key militant wanted for Musharraf bid
Wed Jan 4, 2006
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces have arrested a leading Sunni Muslim militant accused of involvement in two failed assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf, a security official said on Wednesday.
Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, was arrested in late December in the eastern city of Lahore, said an intelligence official, who did not want to be identified.
"He is amongst the top nine terrorists in the country and was also involved in the planning of two failed assassination attempts on President Musharraf," the official added, referring to attacks in Rawalpindi in December 2003.
The official said Tabassum had been running Lashkar's most militant arm, the Akram Lahori Group, after its leader Usman Choto was arrested in Karachi on December 18.
He said Tabassum was also involved in a series of attacks on Western targets as well as minority Shi'ite Muslims.
"He was a leading figure in Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and was also wanted for the Bari Imam attack," the official said, referring to a suicide bombing at a Muslim shrine in the Pakistan capital in May last year. At least 19 people were killed in that attack.
Lashkar is one of several Pakistani militant organizations Pakistani authorities have linked to al Qaeda. It has been implicated in attacks on Western targets in Pakistan, including the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Police detained Tabassum in August 2004 but he was later released due to lack of information about his activities in Lashkar, the official said.
Pakistan has sentenced to death 10 Islamist militants, including military personnel, for the attempts on Musharraf's life. One was hanged in August.
In Karachi, officials said security forces had arrested three other Lashkar militants of accused of involvement in a series of attacks on Shi'ites.
The men were arrested during a raid in Karachi's industrial Korangi district late on Tuesday, said Colonel Qamer Abbas Kayani of the paramilitary Rangers force.
Security agencies also seized guns, detonators and explosives from the militants, identified as Maqsood Ahmed Qureshi, Azhar-ul-Haq and Nawaz Khan, he told a news conference.
"Their names are included in the most wanted list of terrorists and they were planning more attacks in the city," he said.
Khan used to send Lashkar militants to Afghanistan for training and he was also a key financier of the group in Karachi, Kayani said. Qureshi was wanted for seven attacks on Shi'ites and ul-Haq had been trained as a suicide bomber, he said.
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