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Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf revealed Thursday that junior army and air force officers were involved in attempts to kill him last December and would soon go on trial, but that the mastermind remains at large. "There are some people at junior level, people in uniform, air force and army," who have been arrested in connection with the December attacks, General Musharraf told local Geo Television. The army chief-cum-president, who has enraged Islamists by working closely with the United States to crack down on Islamic militants, narrowly survived two assassination attempts on December 14 and Christmas Day as his motorcade travelled near his official army residence in Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad. The mastermind of the attack was Pakistani, Musharraf said. "That man is still at large. We will get him... we know exactly who he is," he said, refusing to name the suspected mastermind. "He's a Pakistani, he's very much a Pakistani, he's very clever, but we'll get him." In the first attempt attackers blew up a bridge seconds after Musharraf's car passed over it. On Christmas Day suicide bombers rammed two explosives-filled trucks into his passing motorcade, killing 15 people and injuring 46. Dozens of people were involved in the two plots, he said. "The operatives who undertook all this, by the dozens I would say... We have got them." More than two dozen suspects had been arrested over the two attempts, an intelligence official said. Half of them were low-ranking military officials. Musharraf also quietly transferred one his top generals in the powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency after the second blast. The official said the mastermind referred to by Musharraf was a former Islamic militant fighter from one of the several extremist organisations outlawed by Musharraf. He went underground last year. "Police are searching for him. But he has eluded the hunt so far because he is no longer keeping in touch with his followers," the official, who could not be named, told AFP. The two suicide bombers were identified as Mohammad Jamil and Shafiq Ahmed, both Islamic militants who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir. Jamil was a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad, one of the fiercest guerrilla groups fighting Indian forces in Kashmir. Musharraf outlawed Jaish in January Jamil was captured while fighting alongside the Taliban and jailed in Afghanistan. He was released from an Afghan prison and repatriated to Pakistan just months before trying to kill Musharraf. Shafiq was linked to Harkat Jihad-e-Islami, a militant outfit affiliated with the convicted mastermind of the abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. Sheikh was interrogated in February in connection with the Musharraf assassination attempts. Musharraf has previously accused the Al-Qaeda network of masterminding the assassination plots. The military officers detained over the plots will soon be put on trial. "It will be under a military court and the whole nation will see it," Musharraf said, without giving a date. Attackers were motivated by religion and money, he added. "Some are not even religious motivation, some are for money." An earlier attempt to kill Musharraf in April 2002 by blowing up a car bomb on a highway used by his motorcade in Karachi failed, as the detonator malfunctioned. Four Islamic militants were convicted and jailed last year over the botched plot. They belonged to the hardcore network Harkatul Mujahedin al-Alaami, who were also linked to a suicide car bomb attack outside the US consulate in June 2002 and Wednesday's double car bomb attack near the US Consul General's residence. One policeman was killed and 32 people were injured in Wednesday' attack. Musharraf said he was "200 percent sure" that no senior officers were involved in the plots. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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