Islamabad, August 24: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said government forces foiled last month a planned terrorist attack on parliament and buildings of the intelligence agency and other federal institutions.
”Pakistan’s parliament building was one target of a planned attack,”he said.
Giving details of the plan in an interview with CNN, he said three men with suicide vests had been arrested over the past four weeks.
He did not say when and where the suspects had been nabbed.
In a separate interview with BBC, the interior minister said it could be part of a policy not to confirm 100 per cent the death of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistani leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was reportedly killed in a US missile strike in South Waziristan eearly this month.
Mr Malik claimed that the Taliban had killed Baitullah’s father-in-law and some other people for spying which led to the killing of Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike.
”They were killed on suspicion of their involvement in the killing of their former chief Baitullah Mehsud.” He said the Taliban had killed Mehsud’s father-in-law Ikramuddin, brother-in-law Iqbal Mehsud and four other people.
He, however, said this information was yet to be confirmed.
”The basis of this information is the same on which we had announced Baitullah’s death,” he said.
He said it did not matter that who would be the next TTP chief, the important thing was that Baitullah was dead.
Mr Malik was of the view that candidates for the new Taliban chief were ‘petty characters’ who were fighting against each other and decisions in the matter were being taken by Al Qaeda.
—Agencies