World | Pakistan
Group that threatened Musharraf dismantled
Pakistani authorities have cracked down on a prison based terrorist network which threatened former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on his cell phone in November.
- By Fasihur Rehman Khan, Correspondent
- Published: 21:17 December 18, 2008
Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have cracked down on a prison based terrorist network which threatened former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on his cell phone in November.
The clandestine network, authorities claimed, was operated by jailed Omer Shaikh, incarcerated for his alleged involvement in the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl - a case which attracted world wide media attention.
"I am after you, get ready to die," the caller reportedly told the former President in a call made to his personal cell phone from the jail premises, the report claimed.
Preliminary Investigations into call records established the call came from Hyderabad jail, Omer Shaikh was immediately placed under observation, officials told a Pakistani newspaper.
Authorities then established it was Omer Shaikh made the threatening phone call to the former president.
"Omer's cell was searched by the authorities and they were surprised to find out that he had three mobile phones, 18 mobile SIMS, batteries and chargers with him. He was frequently making calls all over Pakistan and talking to his relatives and former jihadi associates," the officials said.
The report said the authorities found out a plot had been hatched by Shaikh Omer to eliminate the former president with the help of Laskhar-e-Jhangvi militants, whom he had been in touch with for quite some time.
Officials said the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants had been monitoring Musharraf's route between his Chak Shahzad farmhouse and Army House in Rawalpindi and had planned to blow up a bridge on his main route into Karachi.
Musharraf returned home recently from trips abroad, an official report said he fled the country after the assassination plot was unearthed.
Workers suspended
After recovery of the cell phones from Omer Shaikh's possession, the Sindh provincial government suspended the jail superintendent and some staffers on charges of criminal negligence.
Musharraf as president faced two suicide attacks on his cavalcade in Rawalpindi in 2004 but survived.
Prior to these attacks a bridge - used regularly by Musharraf to travel to Islamabad - was blown up.
The bridge collapsed after an explosive device made of dynamite detonated after Musharraf's vehicles passed over the structure.
Sophisticated jammers fixed to the ex-president's security vehicles stopped the timed device from triggering as the cars were crossing.
Throughout his tenure as President, Musharraf faced many attacks and assassination attempts, as jihadi and militant elements blamed him for policies which saw demise of Taliban government in Afghanistan after 9/11, and the launch of the hunt for Al Qaida and Taliban elements througout Pakistan.
Musharraf, in his memoirs, In the Line of Fire, mentioned Omer Shaikh in connection with Daniel Pearl's murder.
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