Security forces have arrested a militant with links to Osama bin Laden in connection with an October assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who was accused by Benazir of plotting against her in her posthumously published memoirs, was seized on Monday, interior minister Hamid Nawaz told AFP.
"Most probably he is involved in the attack in Karsaz on Benazir Bhutto's rally. He is a big character," Nawaz said, referring to an attack on Benazir's homecoming parade in Karachi's on October 18 that killed 139 people. "The book which Benazir Bhutto has written, his name is written in that," Nawaz said.
Nawaz said he was aware Akhtar had been arrested previously and "somehow got released". He did not give any further details. The official linked his arrest to the dispute over possession of the shrine, not the attack on Benazir.