Karachi, June 18: Defence lawyers today said the chief suspect on trial for allegedly plotting to kill President Pervez Musharraf had been forced into making a false confession. "Imran was forced to record his confessional statement," lawyer Raza Abidi, referring to his client Mohammad Imran Bhai, told judge Aale Maqbool Rizvi.

Police say Bhai heads the Islamic Extremist Organisation Harkat-ul Mujahedin al-Alaami, an offshoot of Harkatul Mujahedin, which sends Muslims guerrillas in Jammu and Kashmir.

He is one of five militants, all allegedly connected to Bhai's organisation, charged over the plot to blow up Musharraf's car in Karachi in April 2002.

Abidi said that on July 17, 2002, when Bhai's confession was allegedly recorded, he was in the custody of intelligence agencies.

"Those security agencies forced him to confess the crime he has not committed," Abidi said after the hearing.

Bhai and co-defendant Hanif Ayub have already been sentenced to death by a different court for masterminding the June 14, 2002, suicide car bomb attack outside the US Consulate, in which 12 Pakistanis were killed.

All five defendants are expected to testify after the prosecution replies to the defence lawyer's charge of a forced confession.

Bureau Report