Man on death row for bid on Musharraf may be Russian

Russia on Friday said that one of the five men sentenced to death for an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf could be its citizen and that it has formally sought consular access to him.

The Russian embassy here wants to confirm whether Akhlas Akhlak Ahmed (24), convicted for masterminding a December 2003 attack against Musharraf, is a Russian citizen or whether his passport is being used by someone else, the BBC’s Urdu service quoted the embassy’s press attache Oleg Jurayev as saying.

The Russian press attache said that he had sent a letter to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry last month, seeking consular access to Akhlas. ‘‘I have not yet received any response,’’ he said. ‘‘We have requested the Pakistani authorities to help our embassy officials in arranging a meeting whenever and anywhere,’’ Jurayev said. ‘‘If he is a Russian citizen we will not leave him alone.”