A Libyan based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, stated to be in charge of Al Qaeda sleeper cells in the US and UK, masterminded and financed assassination attempts against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, a leading daily reported today.Abu Faraj Al Libbi, 40, who was once Osama bin Laden’s personal assistant is in contact with Al Qaeda members and supporters abroad, particularly in Britain and America, The Sunday Telegraph claimed. Abu Faraj has a Pakistani wife and speaks Arabic and Urdu and suffers from the skin disorder leucoderma, it said.Security officers in Pakistan who have interrogated recently captured militants have identified two people — both in British custody — as recipients of coded messages from Abu Faraj, the report said.‘‘Abu Faraj masterminded and financed assassination attempts against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last December,’’ the report said.The existence of a trove of secret Al Qaeda e-mail messages first emerged in July, when Pakistan announced the arrest of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a communications specialist. Officials now say that some of the encrypted messages sent to the Britons originated from Abu Faraj.‘‘The coded messages deciphered recently have revealed to us that he was not only coordinating pre-election terrorist acts in the US, but had sent several messages to several militants in the UK in the last eight to 10 months. To share notes with them about future terror attacks in the UK,’’ an investigator who has seen the communications said.At least two of the British-based militants are believed to have travelled to Pakistan from London, and met Abu Faraj to finalise details of attacks.According to the report investigators discovered a passport-size photograph of Abu Faraj among the possessions of another captured militant. Dressed in western clothes he may have been attempting to create a new identity and passport to enable him to escape Pakistan, if necessary.Last month, Pakistan put him at the top of a list of the country’s ‘‘most wanted terrorists’’ and offered a reward of Rs 20 million for his capture.
