Pakistan arrests nine after assassination attempt

POLICE arrested nine people with suspected ties to the planners of an assassination attempt last month against Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, a security official said in Islamabad yesterday.

The suspects, including some students, were detained during a raid yesterday on an Islamic school in the eastern city of Lahore, the official said.

He refused to give any more details.

Meanwhile, Pakistan toughened punishments for terror financiers, raising the maximum jail term from five to 10 years, and making funding terrorism a non-bailable offence, said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

The changes to Pakistan’s 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act were approved by the Cabinet yesterday. Ahmed said terror financiers had previously faced between six months and five years in jail, but would now face between four and 10 years. He said the changes were made in consideration of UN Security Council resolutions and with the aim of eliminating terrorism.

The changes come weeks after two bombings targeted President General Pervez Musharraf within 11 days. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which the president escaped unhurt.

In the latest attack on Musharraf, suicide bombers tried to ram two explosive-laden pick-up trucks into his motorcade on December 25, killing 16 people. Intelligence officials say the bombers belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based outlawed militant group fighting Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. Ahmed said the investigation into the attack was almost complete. “We have arrested many people who were involved in the attack and efforts are underway to identify their mastermind,” he said. The nine people arrested were suspected of links with the planners of the second attack, the security official said.

Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of several Pakistan-based groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and is opposed to Musharraf’s policy on the disputed region. The president said Pakistan was ready to reach a compromise on its territorial dispute with India in Kashmir in the interests of peace after five decades of hostility.