Musharraf bomb plot trial opens

Hanif and Imran are already on death row

An anti-terrorist court in the Pakistani city of Karachi has begun trying five men on charges of attempting to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.

The prosecution said the defendants, four of whom are believed to be members of an outlawed Islamic militant group, had planned to kill Mr Musharraf by blowing up his motorcade when he arrived in the city on 26 April 2002.

The two men said to have been the ringleaders of the plot have already been sentenced to death for their part in a bomb attack on Karachi's US consulate.

All five have pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and the use of explosives.

A police inspector told the court on Saturday that Mohammed Imran and Mohammed Hanif had admitted their part in the plot whilst being investigated in an unrelated case.

Both men were sentenced to death by hanging in April for masterminding the bomb attack on the US consulate in June 2002 in which 12 Pakistanis were killed.

During that trial, the court found they were members of al-Almi, a radical offshoot of the Harkat ul-Mujahideen militant group.

Two other defendants in the Musharraf trial, named by AP news agency as Mohammed Sharib and Mohammad Ashraf, are allegedly also members of the group whilst the fifth, Mohammed Wasim Akhter, is a former officer of the Rangers, a Pakistani paramilitary group.

Death 'blessing'

Mr Imran and Mr Hanif are suspected of plotting to detonate a bomb in a Suzuki pick-up during President Musharraf's visit to Karachi, but the device failed to go off.

They then used the same vehicle to attack the US consulate, police said at the previous trial.

Police say al-Almi was behind most recent terror attacks

Following his conviction for the consulate attack, Mr Imran welcomed his death sentence.

"This death sentence is a blessing for me, although our deaths have been planned by the government to please America," he said.

The consulate blast was one of a series of attacks on Western targets following Pakistan's decision to join the US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001.

Several radical groups in Pakistan opposed the move, which they warned would backfire on President Pervez Musharraf's administration.

Taleban link

The al-Almi faction was formed in Afghanistan during Taleban rule after the US and Pakistan banned the pro-Kashmiri Harkat ul-Mujahideen.

It is believed to be an extremist Islamic group sympathetic towards al-Qaeda.

Pakistani authorities say its members have been involved in most of the terrorist activities in the country in the last couple of years, mainly in retaliation against US led military action in Afghanistan.

The trial has been adjourned until Monday.