Pakistan Taleban issue fresh threat to kill Musharraf

PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taleban yesterday issued a fresh threat to assassinate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is currently facing a barrage of legal cases in police custody.
The retired general has been detained in his farmhouse on the edge of the capital Islamabad since April 19 on charges of conspiracy to murder former premier Benazir Bhutto, sacking of judges when he imposed emergency rule in 2007, and the 2006 death of a Baluch rebel leader.
Before his arrival in March, Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) threatened to kill him for his alliance in the US-led “war on terror” and attempts to clamp down on militants, when he was in power.
Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan yesterday issued a fresh warning in a video message posted on Taleban website Umar Media, saying “Soon we will punish this Satan (devil) to death for his wicked deed.”
Musharraf went to the top of the Taleban hit list after ordering the army in 2007 to storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad, where radicals were holed up. The operation left more than 100 people dead and opened the floodgates to attacks in Pakistan.
“From Baluchistan to Waziristan, Musharraf threw this country in blood and fire, he is the killer of hundreds of innocent students of Lal Masjid (red Mosque),” Ehsan said.
A Pakistani court on Wednesday refused bail to Musharraf over the detention of judges.
The ruling came two days after a court granted him bail over the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a gun and bomb attack in 2007.
Musharraf escaped three assassination attempts when in office from 1999 to 2008, a target of Islamist extremists because of his alliance in the US-led “war on terror” and attempts to clamp down on militants.
2 charged after
plane diverted
British authorities have charged two men with endangering an aircraft after a plane carrying more than 300 people from Pakistan to Britain was diverted mid-flight.
Essex Police said yesterday that 30-year-old taxi driver Tayyab Subhani and 41-year-old restaurant worker Mohammed Safdar will appear in court today.
Both men, from Lancashire in northwestern England, remain in custody.
A Typhoon fighter jet was scrambled on Friday to divert the Pakistan International Airlines plane traveling from Lahore, Pakistan, to Manchester, and forced it to land at London’s Stansted Airport. The Boeing 777 plane landed safely.
Details about what happened onboard are sketchy but a security official said the situation did not appear to be terror-related.