PESHAWAR, 16 March 2004 — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that a Libyan member of Al-Qaeda was behind two assassination attempts against him in December, and vowed to rid Pakistan’s tribal regions of hundreds of suspected foreign terrorists.
Musharraf, who escaped the attacks unhurt, did not name the Libyan suspect, who he said funded militants to carry out the bombings.
“The man who organized the suicide attacks against me was from Libya and a member of Al-Qaeda,” he told a meeting of tribal elders in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Musharraf has previously said Al-Qaeda could have played a part in the attacks, but this was the first time he explicitly identified a suspect.
“He gave 1.5 million to 2 million rupees ($26,100 to $34,700) to a Pakistani who recruited Islamic militants, Islamic extremists,” Musharraf said.
The president promised that the government would reveal more details about who was behind the attacks. He said the suspects would be shown on television.
“You will see their interviews,” he said, without elaborating.
The two bombings happened 10 days apart in December. On both occasions, Musharraf was traveling in a motorcade in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.
In his address, Musharraf also made his strongest statement yet about the presence of Al-Qaeda rebels in Pakistan’s rugged mountains bordering Afghanistan — believed to be a possible hiding place of Osama Bin Laden. He acknowledged for the first time that between 500 and 600 foreigners “from different countries” were living in the semiautonomous tribal areas, and vowed to drive them out if they would not surrender.
“We will not allow them to get training in our tribal areas, store explosives and go back to Afghanistan for killing their Muslim brothers. We will stop this practice,” he said.
Powell to Discuss Khan Affair
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he expected to hold “full discussions” with Musharraf on nuclear leaks by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan when they meet in Islamabad later this week.
Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, last month publicly confessed that he had shared nuclear secrets with Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Musharraf later pardoned Khan, who is revered as a “national hero” for bringing nuclear technology to Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters on the plane en route to New Delhi, where he arrived late yesterday at the start of a three-nation South Asian tour that also includes Pakistan and Afghanistan, Powell said he will have “full discussions of the A.Q. Khan matter” with Musharraf.
“I will be interested to see whether there is any involvement of past officials or any official involvement in this over the past years,” Powell said.
