PESHAWAR, May 4: Law-enforcement agencies on Tuesday claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate two key religion-political figures and arrested three Afghan nationals hired for this purpose
, an official of the Crimes Investigation Department said.
CID's Additional Inspector-General Sajid Ali Khan told a Press conference that the plan had been chalked out in Jalalabad, capital of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. The CID official did not name the two religio-political leaders the accused planned to assassinate, because of "security reasons."
He said the purpose of the plot was to create political turmoil in the country, especially in the NWFP, ruled by a government of six religious parties, adding that the plan, if executed, would have led to widespread sectarian violence.
According to the AIG, a few months ago one of the accused had managed to sneak within striking range of one of the leaders but he failed because of tight security. The CID official said that three Afghan nationals, in their early 30s, were arrested from different areas of Peshawar, while the main character behind the plan who had hired them for Rs4 million was still in Jalalabad.
He identified two of the three as Ahmad Shah alias Allah Noor alias Usman and Razi Khan, but refused to provide the name of the third accused and their three accomplices who, he said, were still at large. Two of the accomplices, he said, were Afghan nationals and the third a Pakistani.
The 3 held Afghans, Mr Sajid Khan said, were professional murderers who confessed of having killed many people in the city and other parts of the Frontier province. Two of the accused were produced before the court on Tuesday while the third accused will be produced in the court on Wednesday.
