ISLAMABAD, 8 May 2005 — Authorities have tightened security at foreign missions across Pakistan, officials said yesterday, following the arrest of at least eight terror suspects, including a senior Al-Qaeda figure wanted for two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf.

Sources said law enforcement agencies had increased security. “We have conveyed a word of caution to the provinces” of possible reprisal attacks, the official said.

Police and paramilitary troops have been deployed around the US Consulate in Karachi and other sensitive areas including airports.

US and Pakistani intelligence agents interrogated yesterday Al-Qaeda suspects including the network’s alleged third in command Abu Faraj Al-Libbi after his capture earlier this week, sources said.

“US intelligence agents have been part of the operation to catch Al-Libbi,” an intelligence official said. “Al-Libbi is being interrogated jointly by a US and Pakistani team.”

However, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Cell, denied US officials were sitting in on the interrogation of Al-Libbi, underway at an undisclosed location in Pakistan.

“Our own (intelligence) agencies are interrogating him and other suspects,” he said.

Investigators spent a fifth day questioning the captured Libyan national in an attempt to extract information on the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, officials said.

The Pakistani government says Al-Libbi interrogation was progressing well and they hope he can provide clues to the location of Bin Laden. However, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said as of now the location of Bin Laden remains a mystery. Agents were also interrogating a second key Al-Qaeda figure captured alongside Al-Libbi in Mardan. His identity remains a closely guarded secret.

More than 20 suspects have been arrested since Al-Libbi’s capture, including eight in Lahore on Wednesday night. Intelligence officials said yesterday Pakistani Taleban veteran were part of a foiled plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf,.Its own ranks decimated in the last four years, Al-Qaeda has increasingly relied on Pakistani militants who share its world view to act as foot soldiers.