A British-born militant sentenced to death for masterminding the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl is being questioned about two attempts to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, police said yesterday. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, better known as Sheikh Omar, was moved to Islamabad from Hyderabad during the weekend for questioning over the bomb attacks on Musharraf last month, police said.

?Sheikh Omar was taken to Islamabad on Sunday after a request from investigators in President Musharraf?s cases,? Mansoor Ahmed, deputy superintendent of police in Hyderabad, told Reuters.

Musharraf was not hurt in the two attacks within days of each other in Rawalpindi city adjoining the capital, Islamabad. On December 25, suicide car bombers attacked Musharraf?s motorcade. Fifteen people, including the bombers, died and Musharraf?s car was slightly damaged, but he himself was unhurt. He had narrowly escaped another assassination attempt on December 14, when powerful explosive charges destroyed a bridge just seconds after his motorcade passed over it. The attacks have been blamed on Islamic extremists opposed to his support for the U.S.-led ?war on terror?.

A police source in Hyderabad, 1,050 km southwest of Islamabad, said investigators suspected there might be a link between Omar and the militants who attacked Musharraf. ?Before and after attacks on the president, a few suspected militants visited Sheikh Omar at Hyderabad jail,? he said.

Sheikh Omar was sentenced to death in July 2002 for masterminding the murder of Daniel Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. Omar denied the charge and has lodged an appeal, but after he was sentenced to death he warned that anyone who wanted to kill him would himself be killed.

Several members of the outlawed Islamic militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad have been arrested over the second attack on Musharraf?s life last month and officials have said they were looking into whether the attackers had help from within the security apparatus.