Pakistani police arrest Islamists over plot to kill prime minister

Senior police officer in Punjab province said group planned to attack Yousaf Raza Gilani and other senior ministers
Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani
The Pakistani prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is alleged to have been the subject of an Islamist murder plot. Photograph: Mian Kursheed/Reuters

Pakistani police have arrested a group of Islamist militants who were plotting to kill the prime minister and other top government officials, a senior police officer said today.

The conspiracy against the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, was "almost complete," said Abid Qadri, a regional police chief. He said the militants were planning to attack Gilani when he visited his hometown of Multan in the central province of Punjab, but gave no more details.

Militants in Pakistan have frequently attacked government officials, security officers and political leaders as part of a campaign to destabilise the government and take over the state. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack near Islamabad in 2007.

Like other top officials, Gilani does not publicise his movements ahead of time and travels with extensive security.

Qadri did not offer any evidence to back up his declaration.

He said authorities learned about the plot during an initial interrogation of the seven militants, who were arrested late yesterday after a shootout near a village in central Pakistan.


The men are members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni Muslim militant group linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, Qadri said. The group has been blamed for attacking minority Shia places of worship as well as assaults on security forces and other targets.


The men were also conspiring to kill the foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and the minister for religious affairs, who last year survived an assassination attempt in Islamabad, Qadri said. He said the suspects also had plans to attack a dam, a bridge and military installations.