Pakistanis foil plot to kill cleric - officials

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police have arrested a teenager who has confessed to plotting a suicide attack to kill a cleric who leads an Islamist political party, security officials said on Sunday.

The government has warned all politicians that they face the danger of attacks in the run-up to a Feb. 18 general election. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack on Dec. 27.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested late on Saturday in Dera Ismail Khan, a town in North West Frontier Province where Fazl-ur-Rehman, the leader of the Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam religious party lives.

"The boy was caught ... with a vest and explosives," said an intelligence official, who declined to be identified. He said the would-be attacker had admitted that Rehman was his target.

Rehman is believed to have angered militants by opposing clerics who governed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, before commandos stormed it in July. More than 100 people were killed, including many gunmen.

Two other intelligence officials confirmed a youth planning to become a suicide bomber and attack Rehman had been arrested.

The chief of police in Dera Ismail Khan said a boy had been arrested but denied he was part of a plot to kill Rehman.

Rehman was not immediately available for comment.