Karachi, June 08: The trial of four militants accused of trying to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf with a car packed with explosives began on Saturday, with a police officer testifying that the two main suspects had confessed to the crime. The defendants, Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Hanif, admitted their roles in the attempted assassination while being questioned in an unrelated case, police inspector Mohammad Hasan Khaskheli told the Anti-Terrorism court.


Imran, Hanif, and two other defendants -- Mohammed Sharib and Mohammad Ashraf -- allegedly belong to the banned militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi. A fifth defendant, Mohammed Wasim Akhter, is a former officer of the Rangers, a Pakistani paramilitary group. All five have pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and the use of explosives.

On April 26, 2002, Musharraf was traveling from Karachi airport to the center of the southern city when his car drove past a parked vehicle loaded with explosives, police said. The assailants had planned to use them to kill the president, but their remote-control device malfunctioned, the prosecution says. Bureau Report