President Pervez Musharraf

PAKISTAN. FOUR SENTENCED TO DEATH IN MUSHARRAF LIFE ATTEMPT

October 5, 2005: a Pakistani military court sentenced four air force staff to death and two to life in jail on for their involvement in an al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in 2003. Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, narrowly escaped the attempt to kill him on December 14, 2003, when a bomb blew up a bridge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital Islamabad, minutes after his motorcade passed it. The six low-ranking men were tried in a military court over the past six months, a Pakistan Air Force statement said.
"Four have been awarded the death sentence whereas two have been awarded life imprisonment," it said. The statement did not name the convicts.
A man named Islam Siddiqui was hanged on August 20 after being convicted of taking part in the same assassination attempt, and the PAF statement said a civilian named Mushtaq had already been sentenced to death in the case, though it did not say when.
Pakistan's military said no senior officers were involved and the principal planners in the attempts were Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, the so-called al Qaeda "number three" arrested in May, and Amjad Farooqi, a Pakistani militant gunned down in 2004. (Sources: Reuters, 05/10/2005)