ISLAMABAD: A day before the special court was set to indict former president Pervez Musharraf in the ‘high treason’ case, the Ministry of Interior on Monday expressed the possibility of an attack on the ex-military ruler by his own security personnel.

“Militants from outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda have succeeded in penetrating the security, including the cavalcade, of the former president,” sources quoted a letter issued by the National Crisis Management Cell of the interior ministry to the police and the local administration.

The letter stated: “It seems terrorists have sympathisers in the security/cavalcade of retired General Pervez Muharraf to assassinate him. The plan may materialise either on the routes using IED (improvised explosive device) and VBIED (vehicle-bound IED) or inside/outside the court similar to the way in which Salman Taseer was assassinated.”

In 2011, Mr Taseer, the then governor of Punjab, was gunned down by one of his official gunmen in the Kohsar Market of Islamabad.

Mr Musharraf survived two suicide attacks about two kilometres from the Army House in Rawalpindi in 2003. A military court later convicted over a dozen armymen and officials of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) of ‘launching and facilitating’ the attacks.

A security official said terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, TTP and other banned outfits still hated Musharraf for his post-9/11 support to the US. The alert is based on the information gathered by security agencies, he added.

However, neither the security agencies nor the alert issued by the interior ministry was specific about the threat from the ‘inner cordon.’Sources in the National Crisis Management Cell of the interior ministry feared that officials of the army, Rangers, elite force and police deployed on the security of Musharraf might play the role of an assassin.

The military sources, however, admitted that a very few who hated Musharraf might be within the echelons of his inner security.

“There might be some sympathisers of Musharraf’s rivals within the Rangers, police and the elite commandos but we have started their scrutiny after receipt of the recent alert.”

They said after Musharraf returned to the country in March last year, the intelligence agencies issued a number of alerts about threat to his life by terrorist groups but it was for the first time that the possibility of an attack from his own security personnel had been shown by the ministry.

In the alert, the ministry apprehended that Musharraf’s vehicle can be blown up using explosives-laden or a remote-controlled explosive device.

The letter also stated that miscreants had carried out the reconnaissance of all possible routes from the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology to the special court and hardcore militants had been placed on the routes likely to be used by the escort team of the former president.

The sources in the police said after the alert police team deployed with the former president had been replaced except a few officers and reliable personnel. Similarly, the police line headquarter was also directed to collect the details of personnel who performed duties on the route of the former president.

However, the headquarters showed its helplessness to change the entire deployment due to shortage of manpower. In response, personnel were sought from the security and operation wing for the route duties.

Moreover, it was also decided to change the vehicles usually given for the cavalcade of Mr Musharraf and increase their number from 12 to 24.

The former president was advised not to appear in the court on March 11 and if it was necessary then travel in an armed personnel carrier instead of a bulletproof vehicle, the sources said.

It may be noted that last week, Rana Ijaz, a lawyer for Musharraf, warned the judges against a possible attack on the special court, saying he had received credible information that terrorists were planning to assassinate the judges (of the special court), two defence lawyers and a prosecutor.

Though certain quarters, including intelligence agencies, Musharraf’s sympathisers and his lawyers used the ‘security threat’ to justify the absence of the former military ruler from the special court proceedings, it may be a coincidence that a day before the special court was about to indict the former president such an alert has been issued by the interior ministry.

The ministry is a complainant in the high treason case against Mr Musharraf.

Dr Arif Alvi, a lawmaker of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), said the issuance of the alert at such a crucial stage of the high treason case had exposed the weakness of the PML-N government.

“There is a perception that the military and some friendly countries were not happy over the trial of Mr Musharraf and now it appears that something is happening behind the scene,” he said, adding: “In such a confused state of affairs, the people would form the opinion that the government is giving a safe passage to Musharraf.”

He said if the government was not serious in taking the high treason case to a logical conclusion it should not have filed the complaint against Musharraf.