Farooqi's family in the dark

The body of slain terrorist suspect Amjad Farooqi, the alleged mastermind of attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, will be handed over to his close relatives soon, a senior interior ministry official said yesterday.

"After the DNA test was found to be positive, the body of Farooqi will be handed over to his next of kin soon," Brigadier Javed Cheema said, without indicating a date.

Violence feared

Fears of violence at the burial near Farooqi's home on the outskirts of the small town of Pir Mahal in Punjab province prompted authorities to deploy dozens of police to the region.

Farooqi was killed by security forces in a gunbattle on September 26 in the rural town of Nawabshah in southern Sindh province. The government described his killing as a major success in the fight against terror.

A deadly bombing at a Shia mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot in less than a week after the elimination of the alleged terrorist left 31 people dead and around 50 injured. Officials said the attack could be a reaction by Farooqi's clandestine group.

Farooqi's brother, Javed Iqbal, speaking from hometown of Pir Mahal in the interior of Punjab province, said the family had received no official information when the body would be delivered to them.

"We are waiting and relatives have arrived at our home from other places to attend the burial," Iqbal said.

"We will conduct a peaceful funeral in accordance with Islamic tenets and traditions," he said. Authorities suspect Farooqi was a co-organiser of two attempts to assassinate President General Pervez Musharraf last December by blowing up his motorcade. The president escaped injury both times, but 17 others were killed.

Hijacking role

Farooqi is also accused of orchestrating attacks against minority Shiite Muslims in various parts of the country.

He is also suspected of taking part in the hijacking of an Indian airliner to Afghanistan in 1999 that resulted in a hostages-for-prisoners exchange that freed British-born militant Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh from an Indian prison.

Sheikh has been sentenced to death for his role in setting up the 2002 abduction of Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

With inputs from AP