Death sentences in Musharraf plot

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Five men have been sentenced to death in Pakistan after being found guilty of involvement in a plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.

The five include one soldier, military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told journalists on Friday.

The men were arrested after a suicide attack on Gen Musharraf's convoy on 25 December, 2003.

Earlier this month a former soldier was executed after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill the president.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4187254.stm

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1. Pakistan sentences five to hang for Musharraf

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6039002&cKey=1125067837000

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan sentenced five men, including a soldier, to hang for their role in an al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in late 2003, a military spokesman said on Friday.

Musharraf, one of the West's main allies in a global war on terror, narrowly escaped when two suicide car bombers rammed his motorcade on Christmas Day, 2003, in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad. Fifteen people were killed.

It was the second attempt on his life that month, and several soldiers, air force personnel and militants were arrested after the two attacks.

Major-General Shaukat Sultan named the condemned men as trooper Arshad Mehmood, and civilians Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar and Akhlaque Ahmed.