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Assassination Plot Foiled in Pakistan
A plot to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been uncovered. Pakistani security services have arrested about 50 people, many of whom are young officers in the Pakistani Army who had access to the presidential residence, parliament and other secure zones. This was reported in the British Daily Telegraph.
The security services became aware of the plot after an assassination attempt on Musharraf in September of this year. At that time, the presidential residence in Rawalpindi was attacked with 107-mm. shells thought to be of Russian origin, set off by cellular phone. Musharraf was not hurt in the attack.
Initially interrogations show that the conspirators had no ties to All Qaeda or the Taliban. Nonetheless, investigators suggest that Musharraf's support of the United States in the war on terror was the motivation for the conspiracy. This is not the first attempt made on Musharraf's life by army officers. In December 2003, he narrowly avoided a 500-pound bomb planted on a bridge in Rawalpindi. Two army officers were sentenced to death in connection with that explosion.
The Pakistani president has commented that it is not easy to kill him, but he nonetheless wished he had more lives than a cat.
www.kommersant.com
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