'al Qaeda affiliated grp planned attacks in Pak'

Islamabad, Nov 4: A group said to be affiliated with al Qaeda, planned rocket attacks on Islamabad from its sanctuary in the country's tribal lands near the Afghan border, Dawn newspaper reported today.

Pakistani security agencies arrested three suspects after rockets were found last month opposite the presidency, parliament and the headquarters of military spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence.

Dawn said the men took their orders from an Uzbek commander of the Islamic Jihad Group based in North Waziristan. ''While the fingers were in Islamabad, the tail was in Mir Ali,'' the newspaper quoted an investigator as saying, referring to a town in North Waziristan tribal region.

The government signed a pact on Sept 5 with tribal elders in North Waziristan to end months of fighting between Pakistani security forces and militant tribesmen, but critics said the deal risked creating a safe haven for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

US military officials say attacks against NATO, US and Afghan forces have tripled since a truce was brokered in the months before the pact was signed.

Dawn named the Uzbek commander as Yakhyo, also known as Nadzhmiddin Kamilidinovich Janov. IJG is a splinter group of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which is on a UN list of terrorist organisations associated with al Qaeda.

Uzbek militant groups relocated to Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal lands in the 1990s to escape a crackdown in their homeland.

REUTERS