ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (AFP) - A former Pakistani legislator on Monday denied accusations by a senior minister that he was involved in an Al-Qaeda-masterminded plot to launch suicide attacks around Islamabad earlier this month.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told local Geo television on Sunday that Javed Ibrahim Paracha was "the main planner" of foiled Independence Day attacks on the parliament, military headquarters, the US embassy, President Pervez Musharraf`s residence and his office.
Hayat told AFP the plot had been masterminded by an Egyptian Al-Qaeda suspect named Sheikh Esa, alias Qari Ismail.
Paracha, who was a member of parliament between 1997 and 1999 with the then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), rejected the accusations and said he was suing Hayat.
"I have sued Faisal Saleh Hayat and challenged him to prove allegations he has levelled against me," Paracha told AFP by phone from the northwestern city of Peshawar.
"I do not have any link with terrorism in any manner," he added.
Paracha belonged to the pro-Taliban party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam before joining the PML, and now heads an organisation of the Sunni Muslim majority known as the Supreme Sunni Council. He lives in conservative North West Frontier Province.
Pakistan arrested around a dozen local and foreign Islamic militants between August 11 and 15 over the August 13 and August 14 plots, including alleged Egyptian mastermind Ismail, Hayat said.
The Egyptian "is the chief player in the plot," the minister told AFP on Sunday.
He said the planners had been concocting the plot since last year.
Paracha said he had submitted to a Peshawar court a detailed reply to charges levelled by Hayat against him.