MINGORA, Aug 29: Law-enforcement agencies arrested three people suspected of being involved in an attempt on the life of President Pervez Musharraf. The arrests were made in a raid in Matta, about 250km north of Peshawar, in the early hours of Sunday.

Sources said a team comprising police officials and personnel of secret agencies conducted the raid on a house in Shawar village of upper Matta and arrested the owner of the house, Mohammad Rahim, his son Umar Rehman and a guest Abdul Qayyum. The raiding party also seized weapons, explosives and communication equipment, the sources added.

They said that law-enforcement agencies had been monitoring the movement of unidentified people, especially in the upper parts of Swat, for some time. A raid was conducted in the same area on Feb 21, but nobody was arres-ted.

Soon after the arrest, Abdul Qayyum was taken to Islamabad for interrogation, our Peshawar Bureau adds quoting reliable sources.

The sources alleged that Abdul Qayyum had links with Jaish-i-Mohammad. He was required by the authorities in connection with the attack on President Gen Pervez Musharraf in December last year.