Islamabad: As 20 people were detained for questioning into the Christmas Day suicide attack on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, investigations reportedly revealed that one of the bombers involved in the assassination bid either belonged to banned Jaish-e-Mohammad or its break away group Khudamul Islam while another believed to be a Chechen.

One of the suicide bombers was believed to be a Chechen while the other a local involved with Jaish, Pakistani daily 'The Nation' said today (Dec 28, 2003).

Other newspaper reports, however, said the local suicide bomber has been identified as Muhammad Jamil of Rawalkot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) who had links with a little-known Pakistani militant group al-Jehad.

However, 'The Nation' said Jamil was a member of the banned militant group whose leader was released by India a few years ago while swapping passengers of a hijacked Indian plane in Kandahar in Afghanistan, referring to the leader of Jaish, Masood Azhar.

Jaish was banned last year (2002) and Azhar floated Khudamul Islam, which was also proscribed recently by Musharraf.

However, there appeared to be a few details regarding the identity of the Chechen militant who is believed to be a member of a Chechen group owing allegiance to al-Qaeda. Jaish, though focussed its attention mainly on Kashmir, had links with al-Qaeda and Taliban.

Police have so far arrested about 20 persons, including one of the main suspects linked to the assassination attempt.

'The Nation' said the identification of the two suicide bombers, whose faces were found to be intact, has led to several arrests in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Rawalakot in PoK.

The clues found at the blast site, which included a chip of the cell phone carried by one of the attackers and the chassis and engine numbers of the two cars used in the incident, led police to detain a number of people, it said.

Based on the engine and chassis numbers, owner of one of the cars identified Jamil as the one who bought it a few days before the attack.

Other newspaper reports also said that Jamil, 31, son of Muhammad Sabil Khan, belonged to a religious party and his parents said he left home several years ago and visited them once in a while.

Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid yesterday (Dec 27) said a "network" of local and foreign militants has been identified as the one responsible for December 25 suicide attack on Musharraf.