Pakistan holds 5 in Musharraf plane shooting case

ISLAMABAD, July 17 (Reuters) Pakistani authorities have arrested five people in connection with shots fired shortly after President Pervez Musharraf's aircraft took off from Rawalpindi earlier this month, the military said today.

The Interior Ministry said on July 6 a sub-machinegun, which had been fired, had been found on the roof of a house under the flight path near the airport after Musharraf had flow out to inspect flood damage in the south.

The ministry said two weapons it described as anti-aircraft guns had also been found but these had not been fired. A Reuters photographer saw two machineguns mounted on tripods on the flat roof of the house.

An intelligence official said at the time that the shooting had been an unsuccessful attempt on Musharraf's life, although the government initially said there did not appear to be a link between the shooting and the president's flight.

Military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said five people were being questioned in connection with the weapons.

''The law enforcing agencies have arrested five people with regard to the recovery of weapons from Asghar Mall road in Rawalpindi,'' he said, referring to the location of the house.

''They're being interrogated,'' Arshad said, without giving further details.

Musharraf, a US ally who seized power in a military coup eight years ago, survived two al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts in Rawalpindi in December 2003.

This month's shooting took place three days after Pakistani security forces laid siege to a radical mosque in Islamabad after clashes with followers of hardline clerics there.

Army commandos later stormed the mosque, killing 75 militants.

At least nine members of the security forces were killed in the assault.

REUTERS LPB RN2136