By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is facing life threats from Al Qaeda, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said Monday.
“The threat is there,” Khan said when asked during an interview with Dawn News channel if Musharraf was facing threats from Al Qaeda.
“There is a definite threat from Al Qaeda and they had declared very openly that they would try to attack him,” he said.
Answering a question about threats to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said the government had informed her of threats to her life and provided her security.
Two suicide attacks hit the procession Bhutto led in the southern city of Karachi Oct 19, leaving 140 people dead and many injured.
Khan said there were threats to some of the leaders like former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who was targeted in a suicide bombing attack on the Eid day. The attack killed more than 50 people.
He added that another former minister, Amir Muqam, was also under threat and there were many others who could be possible targets.
“We are providing security to ex-prime minister Shaukat Aziz and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as well as Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,” Khan said.
President Musharraf narrowly survived two assassination bids in less than two weeks in December 2003 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which killed at least 14 people.