Police accuse 7 arrested men of plot to kill PM

Pakistani police arrested a group of Islamist militants plotting to kill the prime minister in a gun and suicide bomb attack at his house, officials said yesterday. The seven men also are accused of targeting other government leaders for assassination.

Militants in Pakistan have frequently attacked government officials, security officers and political leaders as part of a campaign to destabilise the US-allied government. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack near Islamabad in 2007. The conspiracy against prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was nearly complete, police officials said.

The suspects are accused of belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Their plan included monitoring Mr Gilani's movements and storming his private residence in the central city of Multan with guns and a suicide bomber, police investigator Waris Bharwana said.

"These terrorists were arrested in a timely fashion, and surely we have averted an attack on the prime minister," he said.

Abid Qadri, a regional police chief, said authorities learned about the plot during an initial interrogation of the seven militants, who were arrested late on Wednesday after a shootout near a village in central Pakistan.

The militants opened fire when police tried to pull their car over for a routine check, Mr Qadri said. No-one was wounded in the shooting, but two of the attackers escaped, he said.

A judge has ordered the seven suspects be held and questioned in a prison. Their next court date is 27 October, Mr Bharwana said.

Some of the suspects are believed to have taken part in an attack last year on the offices of Pakistan's main spy agency in Multan, Mr Qadri said. They were also conspiring to kill foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and had plans to attack a dam, a bridge and military installations, he said.