ISLAMABAD, May 11: Pakistan said on Wednesday that recently-captured top Al Qaeda suspect Abu Faraj Al-Libbi had also been involved in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before he assumed office last year. “Yes, he had been involved in the murder plot against Mr Shaukat Aziz,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP. He declined to elaborate.

Alleged Al Qaeda number three Al-Libbi, who was arrested on May 2 in Mardan, was described as the mastermind behind two failed attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

Al-Libbi, whose named means “the Libyan”, was still being interrogated by Pakistani security forces at an undisclosed location, but the government has refused to give any details about the questioning.

Mr Aziz narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack at a by-election rally in Fateh Jang, near Islamabad, on July 30. The bomber walked up to Aziz’s car and blew himself up along with nine other people, including Aziz’s driver.

The attack on Aziz came less than 24 hours after Pakistan announced the arrest of Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted for the twin bombings of US embassies in east Africa in 1998.

Security officials last week said a gang of Pakistani militants arrested before Al-Libbi’s capture had been plotting a new bid to assassinate Gen Musharraf, but that the conspiracy had been foiled.

They said the Libyan had links with the plotters, including a former Pakistani Taliban and a junior Pakistan air force official who escaped jail last year after he was sentenced to death for an earlier attack on Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf has earned the hatred of Islamic extremists by allying himself with Washington after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

In December 2003 militants blew up a road bridge moments after he passed. Two weeks later, on Christmas Day, suicide car bombers ploughed into his motorcade in the same area, killing 15 people.

A number of Pakistani militants have been arrested in the months since the attack on Aziz. The alleged mastermind, key Al Qaeda recruiter Amjad Farooqi, was killed in a shootout with security forces in September last year.—AFP