ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Pakistan has broadened the scope of search for criminals who planned last week's assassination attempt on Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and law-enforcement agencies have been directed to probe into links between militant groups and the Islambouli Brigade of Al Qaeda.

This was stated on Sunday by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat talking to Dawn, he said he would not rule out Al Qaeda's possible involvement in the attack and said that law-enforcement agencies were also looking into possible involvement of other militant groups including 'Arab-Afghans' allied to Al Qaeda and having links in Wana.

When asked about Islambouli's linkages, the interior minister said: "Islambouli, the terrorist group which claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on Shaukat Aziz in Attock was also involved in the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981."

Mr Hayat said the government of Egypt, Pakistan's embassy in Cairo and other concerned quarters were being contacted to get information about the terrorist group and its linkages.

He said that Islambouli had become an ally of Al Qaeda some time in the 90s. According to US State Department's 'Patterns of Global Terrorism' reports, the Islambouli Brigade of Al Qaeda is an offshoot of Egypt's terrorist group Al Jihad with several hundred 'Afghan' guerillas.

The group is headed by Mohammed Shawqi al Islambouli, brother of Khalid al Islambouli who assassinated Anwar Sadat in October 1981. The Al Islambouli established a base in Jalalabad, from where hundreds of its operatives participated in the Afghan Jihad.

The interior minister said the Islam bouli group derived its name from its founder who had masterminded the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The militants of Islam bouli were said to have been trained in Afghanistan in the use of explosives to carry out specialized terrorist attacks and car bombings against high-level officials.

The US 'Patterns of Global Terrorism' reports cite linkages of Osama bin Laden and Afghan militant groups to Egypt's Gama'a al- Islamiyyah, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the the Islambouli Brigade of Al Qaeda.

Sources said Egypt and Pakistan signed an extradition treaty in 1994 after Cairo's request for help in the hunt for 'Arab- Afghans' believed to number some 1,200 in mid-1990s. A high-profile extradition by Pakistan in 1994 included 26-year-old Ali Eid who represented the Al Jihad group of Egypt in the region.

However, an interior ministry spokesman said: "Our intelligence agencies have found no evidence about involvement of any Egyptian group in terrorist activities in Pakistan, except a suicide attack on Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad in 1995."

The spokesman said a top Al Qaeda leader, Egyptian-born Canadian national, Ahmed Saeed Khadr, was involved in the embassy bomb blast which had claimed nine lives. The attack on the embassy was the first suicide bombing in Pakistan.

It is confirmed that Ahmed Saeed Khadr was killed by the Pakistan Army in a military operation in Wana in October 2003. Officials said that in the wake of recent operations launched in Wana, law enforcement agencies have rattled the Egyptian terrorist networks linked with Al Qaeda.

A senior government official said the pattern of recent terrorist incidents including attacks on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz, work typical of the methods used by of "Arab-Afghan" militant groups which use vehicles packed with explosives and grenades in suicide attacks.

"It is difficult to control suicide attacks but we are working to dismantle the network and its offshoots," said an interior ministry official. He said he believed the terrorist networks targeted the top Pakistani leadership under a well-coordinated plan under the Pakistan-specific February 2003 'fatwas' issued by Al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden and later in September by his number two Ayman Al Zawahiri.

The claim responsibility of the assassination attempt on Mr Aziz by the Egyptian group had an element of warning and a message for the sleeping cells, said a source.

Responding to a question about the website on which the claim was posted, the interior minister said the site was being examined both by Egyptian and Pakistani experts.

"Before receiving report about the website we cannot declare if it is a 'genuine' or a ghost website," he added. Talking about the identity of the suicide bomber who was killed in the attack on Mr Aziz along with eight civilians, the minister said he could not be identified so far.

However, Mr Hayat said, the local police had issued photographs of the attacker for identification. The sources said a number of Egyptian terrorists were wanted by the US authorities who were in Al Qaeda's hierarchy, including Al Zawahiri.

When the military launched the hunt for a "high-value target" in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the Egyptian deputy of Osama was thought to be among the targets. When the war against terrorism was launched, coalition partners, including Pakistan, was given a list of wanted terrorists by the US.

Some Al Qaeda terrorists of Egyptian background on the list for global hunt included: Al Qaeda's military commander Mohammed Atef, military operational chiefs Mohammad Salah and Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad, Osama's security chief Saif al-Adil, Afghan training camp commander Abu Mohammad al- Masri alias Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah in charge of Al Qaeda's finances and logistics cell Ahmad Said al-Khadr (Egyptian-Canadian), weapons of mass destruction researcher Midhat Mursi and Egyptian operatives Mohammad Omar Abdel-Rahman, Ahmad Omar Abdel- Rahman, Ibrahim el Mekkawi, Mahmoud el Sabbawy, Rifa al-Taha, Abbud al-Zumar, Talat Qasim, Saif al-Adel and Muhammad Shawqi Islambouli.

The officials, while probing the links of local militant organizations with Al Qaeda, have not ruled out the possibility that the attack on Mr Aziz was a fallout of the operation against militants holed up in mountains of tribal areas and on the Afghan side of the border.

Replying to a question about the on-going election campaign of the finance minister, the interior minister said Mr Aziz had been advised to avoid public appearance in the next few days.

"After the attempt on the life of Mr Aziz, his election campaign has further accelerated in his constituency in Attock as he has gained in fame and sympathy among locals," he added.