KARACHI, 11 September 2004 — Two doctors have been indicted for treating Al-Qaeda suspects and members of an extremist group accused of launching an assassination attempt against a top general in June that left 10 people dead, a government lawyer said yesterday.
Police initially arrested the doctors — brothers Akmal Waheed and Arshad Waheed — on July 2 in connection with the failed attempt to kill Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the city’s top army general.
Those charges were later dropped, but prosecutors say they now have information that the doctors had treated “terrorists.”
On Thursday, a judge in Karachi indicted the physicians, saying they had treated Al-Qaeda suspects Hassam Al-Saim and Abu Musab at a hospital last year. Musab escaped a police raid on a house in Karachi on Jan. 9, 2003, despite being wounded in a shootout.
It was not clear who Al-Saim was, although prosecution lawyer Maula Bakhsh Bhatti said both men were Al-Qaeda members.
He said the Waheeds also treated members of Allah’s Brigade, whose chief was recently arrested with eight other members for their alleged role in the June attack. The doctors pleaded not guilty and their lawyer, Shaukat Hayyat, described the case as a “pack of lies.” Their trial will start Sept. 14 and be held at a prison for security reasons.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani linked to a militant group allegedly involved in a botched attempt to kill President Pervez Musharraf has been arrested in Karachi, police said yesterday.
Irfan Khalid, 28, a member of the Harkatul Mujahedin Al-Alaami group, was arrested late Thursday when he arrived in Karachi from the eastern city of Lahore, Raja Umar Khitab, a senior investigator, said.
The group tried to blow up Musharraf’s car as his convoy traveled along a busy highway from Karachi’s airport on April 26, 2002, but the attempt failed because a remote-controlled device intended to detonate an explosive-laden van malfunctioned.
Khaled used to take care of arranging logistics for the group, Khitab said.
