PAKISTAN. SOLDIER WHO PLOTTED TO KILL MUSHARRAF HANGED

Islam Siddiqui, a soldier convicted of plotting to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was executed by hanging.
Siddiqui, one of several soldiers and militants arrested after two al Qaeda-inspired attempts on Musharraf's life in late 2003, was executed in the central city of Multan after being sentenced by a military court in 2004.
"He was hanged this morning and his body was handed over to his family," Hasan Waseem Afzal, Home Secretary of the Punjab province, told Reuters.
Musharraf became a prime target for al Qaeda after he withdrew support for the Taliban government harbouring Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Prison officials said that Siddiqui's appeal for mercy was turned down by General Musharraf's vice army chief.
Siddiqui had been found guilty of being involved in an assassination attempt on December 14, 2003, when a bomb blew up a bridge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, minutes after Musharraf's car passed over it. Eleven days later, again in Rawalpindi, suicide bombers attacked his motorcade, killing 15 people.