Pak acquits man in Musharraf assassination plot

Defence lawyer Sami Ullah said the police had failed to provide evidence against Naveed-ul-Hasan.

A Pakistani court on Wednesday acquitted an Islamist militant of charges of involvement in a failed assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi four years ago, his lawyer said.

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Defence lawyer Sami Ullah said the police had failed to provide evidence against Naveed-ul-Hasan, an activist of the shadowy Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Alami group.

"The court in its ruling said that the evidence against him was full of doubts," he added.

Hasan was accused by the police of parking a vehicle packed with explosives along a route Musharraf was to take in the port city of Karachi in 2002. But the remote-controlled detonator failed.

Musharraf has survived at least three assassination attempts by militant groups since joining a US-led war on terrorism following Al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.