Pakistani Soldiers punished for attempt on Musharraf

Soldiers punished for attempt on Musharraf


By Anwar Iqbal
UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst

Islamabad, Pakistan, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A Pakistani military court has sentenced one soldier to death and another to 10 years hard labor for conspiring to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, the military said Friday.

"The soldiers were involved in the attack against the president on Dec. 14, 2003 in Rawalpindi," a city close to Islamabad, the army's press office said.

"The court found them guilty of the charges," said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the army's chief spokesman. He said the soldiers were sentenced "a few days ago" but gave no details.

United Press International reported the story on Dec. 21 and identified the soldier sentenced to death by firing squad as Mohammed Islam Siddiqui.

"This is only a small segment of what is happening behind closed doors of the Pakistani cantonments," says Syed Saleem Shahzad of the Asia Times who first reported the trial. "There are many within the army who are not happy with Pakistan's strong alliance to the United States."

Siddiqui was arrested in South Waziristan after he refused to fight against tribal insurgent helping al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. Waziristan is part of the long and porous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan where U.S. officials believe several key al-Qaida leaders are hiding. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri are also believed to be hiding in this region.

Shahzad said there were other soldiers who also refused to fight "their Muslim brothers" and were arrested with Siddiqui.

Later, investigators found that Siddiqui was also involved with a group within the armed forces that was assisting al-Qaida suspects who made two attempts on Musharraf in December last year.

Musharraf narrowly escaped both the attempts. In the first attempt, on Dec. 14, a powerful explosion rocked a bridge just seconds after his motorcade had passed.

Pakistani security officials say that a hi-tech jamming device on Musharraf's car delayed the explosion and possibly saved his life.

Musharraf survived a second attack in the same area about two weeks later on Christmas Day last year when two suicide bombers rammed explosives-laden vehicles into the presidential motorcade, killing 15 people.

Musharraf who is also the army chief, annoyed al-Qaida when he abandoned Pakistan's former Taliban allies and joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Al-Qaida says that Musharraf's assistance enabled the United States to bring down the Taliban regime without much resistance and caused the collapse of its terror network.

Pakistani security officials have blamed a Libyan al-Qaida militant, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, for masterminding the two attempts. Pakistan has offered a $350,000 reward for al-Libbi's arrest. The United States has also announced a separate, $5 million reward.

In September, Pakistani police shot dead Amjad Farooqi, another co-conspirator of the Christmas Day attempt on Musharraf and the beheading of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl.

The authorities this year arrested Tanzanian national, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was convicted for the 1998 twin bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, and Pakistani al-Qaida computer expert Naeem Noor Khan.

Three Islamic extremists were sentenced to 10 years hard labor for an earlier assassination attempt on Musharraf in Karachi in April last year, when a remote-controlled device failed to detonate an explosives-laden van near the president's motorcade.

Siddiqui, the soldier sentenced to death for the Dec. 14 attempt on Musharraf, is from the Defense Services Guard Company attached to the Punjab regiment.

Charges against him include "abetting mutiny" against Musharraf and attempting to persuade "a person in the military" to rebel against the government.

Siddiqui is also accused of entering Afghanistan without a passport and having links to a group in the Pakistan air force which was plotting to eliminate Musharraf.

The Pakistani army, which was part of the British Indian army before independence in 1947, was raised on liberal values. But this changed in the early 1980s when the Soviet forces occupied neighboring Afghanistan, and Pakistan became the hub of resistance to the Soviet occupation.

Both U.S. and Pakistani authorities recruited hundreds of Muslim activists from around the world to fight in Afghanistan. Many of them worked closely with the Pakistan army along with Pakistani and Afghan jihadi groups.

Pakistan continued the army's association with the jihadis after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They also used them to stir an uprising against India in Kashmir, a Himalayan valley disputed between Islamabad and New Delhi since 1947.

While most of the armed forces supported Musharraf's decision to join the U.S. camp three years ago, religiously inclined soldiers and officers were not happy. The first time the army's high command learned about their grievances was in December 2003 when Musharraf escaped two close attempts on his life.

Investigators later said they learned that there were groups within the Pakistan army and the air force who conspired with al-Qaida in arranging these attacks.

Alarmed, Musharraf ordered a major overhaul of the armed forces. Musharraf loyalists were tasked with drawing a list of religiously inclined officers and many were quietly retired.