
Pakistani police are holding five Islamic militants over an alleged plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, an investigator said today. 8216;8216;We are interrogating five people, believed to be members of Harkatul Mujahedin Al Alaami, who planned to kill Musharraf on April 27,8217;8217; the investigator said on condition of anonymity. The militants planned to kill Musharraf as he was opening the Lyari Expressway in Karachi, he said. 8216;8216;But he arrived three hours late and the plot was foiled.8217;8217;
Three militants from the same group allegedly tried to blow up the President8217;s car with an explosives-laden vehicle as he travelled along the Sharae Faisal highway from Karachi airport a day earlier on April 26. Their detonator failed. The same vehicle was later blown up outside the US consulate on June 14 in a suicide attack which killed 12 Pakistanis, according to police.