Pakistani security forces Sunday killed the country's most wanted terrorist allegedly involved in an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf and indicted in the murder of a US journalist.

Amjad Farooqi, who had a 20 million Pakistani rupees (about US$350,000) of bounty on his head, was shot dead Sunday in a five-hour shootout with the security forces in Nawabshah, about 200 km northeast of Karachi, Daily Times reported Monday.

An unnamed security official was quoted by the paper as saying Sunday the authorities had information that al-Qaeda suspects had been hiding in a house in Nawabshah, but their identities and nationalities were not immediately clear.

A large number of security forces sealed off the rented house in the morning, calling the suspects there to surrender but they opened fire. The security forces returned fire, killing Farooqi and arresting his two accomplices. The security forces took Farooqi's body into their custody.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid confirmed Sunday that Farooqi had been killed by the security forces, AFP reported.

Rashid said the security forces had also arrested three important terror suspects.

"It is yet another success of the Pakistani intelligence fighting against terrorism," he said by telephone from Amsterdam, where he is accompanying President Musharraf on a European visit.

"We will disclose the identity of his accomplices in few days. They are all Pakistanis and very important suspects," Rashid said.

President Musharraf had named Farooqi as the "Pakistani mastermind" of the assassination plot on his convoy on Dec. 25 last year by two suicide bombers, who rammed their explosives-laden vehicles close to the presidential motorcade, leaving 17 people dead.

Farooqi, 30, was the lynchpin of the al-Qaeda network in Pakistan and had also been involved in the kidnap-murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in early 2002.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2004)