Soldier charged with plot to kill Musharraf

A member of an elite para-military unit was charged yesterday with trying to assassinate General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan.

Inspector Wasim Akhtar, of the Pakistan Rangers, is to appear in court today on charges in connection with an attempt on 26 April to kill the President, a Karachi police official, Azad Khan, said.

Insp Akhtar had been assigned to provide security to the President, who was in the southern port city of Karachi to campaign for a "yes" vote on his referendum to extend his term of office.

Police said Insp Akhtar's role in the assassination plot was to tell his accomplices of Gen Musharraf's movements. A pick-up truck packed with 227kg (500lb) of explosives was parked on the airport road. Insp Akhtar allegedly telephoned his accomplices when Gen Musharraf's entourage left the airport.

They waited for his vehicle but the remote-controlled detonator failed. They retrieved the vehicle and used it on 14 June to kill at least 12 Pakistanis and injure 50 others in a powerful explosion at the American consulate in Karachi. Two of Insp Akhtar's alleged accomplices – Mohammed Hanif and Mohammed Imran – have been charged in connection with that bombing as well as with attempted murder in the failed assassination.

Mr Hanif, Mr Imran and a third man, Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed, were members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Almi, Major-General Salahuddin Satti, of the Rangers, said. The organisation is an al-Qa'ida-affiliated extremist group whose members fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Mr Azad said police were looking for 15 others they believed may have been involved in the consulate bombing as well as the 8 May suicide blast at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi that killed 11 French engineers and three Pakistanis.

Gen Musharraf has been bitterly criticised by religious extremists in Pakistan for backing the US-led coalition's assault on neighbouring Afghanistan that led to the collapse of the Taliban.