Benazir murder investigation reveals terrorists linked to Baitullah
File photo of Benazir Bhutto minutes before her assassination. PHOTO: EPA
New findings in the Benazir Bhutto murder case investigation revealed that the suicide bombers and facilitators were all students of Madrassa Haqqaniya, and were constantly in direct contact with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Aitazaz Shah, Rafaqat, Husnain Gul, Abdul Rasheed and Sher Zaman have been declared the main accused in the case.
City Police Officer Saud Aziz, SP operations Yasin Farooq, SP Rawal Town Khurram Shezad and SHO police station city Inspector Kashif Riaz have also been accused.
They allegedly showed criminal negligence, provided insufficient security, ruined the crime scene and evidence and stopped doctors from performing autopsies.
The new joint investigation team investigating the Benazir Bhutto murder case has completed its new inquiry and prepared a challan.
The team is headed by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director Mohammed Khalid Qureshi.
Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali and FIA Deputy Director Khalid Rasool will submit their findings before Rawalpindi’s Special Court today (Monday).
By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago
KARACHI, Pakistan - Two explosions went off Thursday night near a truck carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her celebratory return to Pakistan after eight years in exile. Police and party workers said Bhutto was unhurt, but an official said there were at least 30 people killed and 100 wounded.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene said he saw between 50 and 60 dead or badly wounded people. He said some of the bodies were ripped apart.
An initial small explosion was followed by a huge blast just feet from the front of the truck carrying Bhutto during a procession through Karachi. The blast shattered windows in her vehicle.
Footage from the scene showed bodies on the ground, lying motionless, plus a dozen or more injured who were moving.
Several motorcycles also lay on their sides. Flames burned in the center of the street after the explosions.
Scores of people, mostly men wearing white robes, fled down the street after the blast.
Neither Bhutto nor any of the others riding on the truck was hurt, police officer Hasib Beg said.
More than 150,000 jubilant supporters had surrounded the convoy carrying Bhutto amid massive security in Karachi.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Two explosions went off Thursday night near a truck carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her celebratory return to Pakistan after eight years in exile. Police said she was unhurt, but witnesses reported seeing dozens of dead and wounded.
Footage from the scene showed what appeared to be three bodies on the ground, lying motionless, plus a dozen or more injured who were moving.
Several motorcycles also lay on their sides. Flames burned in the center of the street after the explosions.
Scores of people, mostly men wearing white robes, fled down the street after the blast.
Neither Bhutto nor any of the others riding on the truck was hurt, police officer Hasib Beg said.
More than 150,000 jubilant supporters had surrounded the convoy carrying Bhutto amid massive security in Karachi.
بے نظیر بھٹو کے لئے بلٹ پروف خصوصی فلوٹ
Updated at 15:25 PST
کراچی . . . . . اسٹاف رپورٹر . . . . . پیپلز پارٹی کی چیئرپرسن بے نظیر بھٹو کو کراچی ائیر پورٹ سے بلاول ہاوٴس تک لے جانے کے لئے جو فلوٹ استعمال کیا گیا وہ خصوصی طور پر ڈیزائن کرایا گیا ہے۔ اس میں حفاظتی نکتہ نظر اور طویل سفر کے دوران بنیادی سہولتوں کی فراہمی کوبھی مدنظر رکھا گیاہے۔یہ فلوٹ ایک بڑے ٹرک پر ائیر کنڈیشن کنٹینر رکھ کربنایا گیا ہے۔کنٹینر کی دیواروں کو بلٹ اور راکٹ پروف بنادیا گیا ہے۔ پورے فلوٹ پر پیپلز پارٹی کے جھنڈے کا رنگ کیاگیاہے۔ کنٹینر کے اندر آرام دہ صوفے لگائے گئے تھے جبکہ کنٹینر کی چھت پر بھی آرام دے کرسیاں رکھی گئی ہیں۔ محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو فلوٹ کے جس حصے میں کھڑے ہوکے لوگوں کے استقبالی نعروں ہاتھ ہلاکر جواب دیں گے اس حصے میں ہلکے سبز رنگ کا شیشہ لگا ہوا ہے۔ فلوٹ کو کارواں کا نام دیا گیا ہے۔ اس پر ذوالفقار علی بھٹو اور بے نظیر بھٹو کی بہت بڑی تصاویر آویزاں ہیں۔ اس پر مختلف نعرے بھی درج ہیں۔
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کی چےئرپرسن محترمہ بینظیر بھٹونے اپنے بازو پر امام ضامن باندھا ہواہے۔پیپلز پارٹی کے ذرائع نے بتایا ہے کہ یہ امام ضامن پیپلز پارٹی متحدہ عرب امارات کے سیکریٹری جنرل رانا محمد رمضان نے دبئی میں محترمہ بینظیر بھٹو کو گھر سے نکلنے سے پہلے باندھا تھا۔ رانا رمضان نے روانگی سے قبل دبئی میں سات بکروں کا صدقہ بھی دیا۔
132 killed in suicide attacks
* Former PM safe, whisked away to Bilawal House
* Sindh IG says militants have threatened more attacks on Benazir
* At least one explosion was caused by suicide bomber
By Amar Guriro and Urooj Zia
KARACHI: At least 132 people were killed and hundreds injured late on Thursday night as suspected suicide bombers targeted former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.
Two explosions went off a minute apart shortly after midnight near Karsaz close to the vehicle Ms Bhutto was travelling in, at the head of a procession of hundreds of thousands of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supporters who had flooded the streets of Karachi to welcome the return of their leader.
The attack bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda and resembled assassination attempts by militants linked to the terrorist network on President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in recent years. Intelligence reports also warned of threats of suicide attacks against Ms Bhutto by militants linked to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Baitullah Mehsud, the Sindh home secretary said on Wednesday.
“The blasts hit two police vehicles which were escorting the truck carrying Ms Bhutto. The target was the truck,” senior Karachi police official Azhar Farooqui told Reuters.
Benazir safe: Ms Bhutto was leading the procession to Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, where she was to give a speech. However, after the two explosions, she was rushed to the safety of Bilawal House.
“Benazir Bhutto was immediately taken to her ancestral Bilawal House after the blast,” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told AFP. “She’s absolutely safe.” Rehman Malik, an aide to Ms Bhutto who was travelling with her on the truck, said the blasts went off while she was resting inside the vehicle.
Rescuers scrambled to drag bodies from the twisted wreckage of blazing vehicles as fires broke out at the site. “More than two dozen vehicles, including police mobile units, were completely shattered,” eyewitnesses told Daily Times.
Militant threats: Sindh IG Ziaul Hassan told Geo news late last night that militants have threatened more suicide attacks against Ms Bhutto. “There were two blasts, one on the left side and one on the right side of the procession,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. “It appears these were suicide attacks, but it is not confirmed.”
Suicide bombing: SP Raja Umer Khitab told Daily Times the first blast was a suicide attack. He said the police had recovered part of a torso wearing a suicide jacket, as well as the head and hands and feet of the suicide bomber.
According to witnesses, the bomber tried to enter the inner security cordon of PPP workers around Ms Bhutto but was stopped, and then he set off the explosion. Witnesses said the second blast originated from a golden-coloured Pajero parked on the road. Forty dead bodies were taken to the Liaquat National Hospital, 60 to the JPMC, 27 to Civil Hospital, two to AKUH and three to Zubaida Medical Centre, a death toll of 132, hospital officials told Daily Times.
Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said at least 90 people had been killed and over 300 injured. Among the dead were said to be 20 policemen and several journalists.
Rioting: Rioting and gunfire broke out in Dalmia, Malir, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and the National Highway after the two bomb blasts, and the protesters set fire to a petrol pump on the Super Highway. At Liaquat National Hospital, PPP activists shouted slogans insulting the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Some 20,000 security personnel had been deployed in Karachi to provide protection for Ms Bhutto.
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Bhutto assassination: Who opened the hatch and slowed the vehicle?
File photo of Benazir Bhutto moments before her assassination. PHOTO: EPA
LAHORE: Important questions on the sequence of events that led to the assassination of Pakistan’s first woman prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto were raised in the Point Blank programme hosted on Express News by anchor Mubasher Lucman on Wednesday.
Senator Safdar Abbasi, who was the guest on the show, was asked who had opened the hatch through which Bhutto raised her head and exposed herself to her assassins. Abbasi replied he did not remember but speculated that bodyguard Khalid Shehenshah “might have done so.” He refuted the possibility that the driver or someone next to Bhutto could have opened the hatch as this was not possible.
Abbasi also denied that he had slowed the progress of the cavalcade as it left the grounds of Liaquat Bagh by taking the microphone and raising slogans on which party supporters gathered around Bhutto’s vehicle. Programme anchor Lucman commented that it was the slowing of the vehicle and the opening of the hatch that eventually led to the attack on the former premier.
Giving details of the seating in the vehicle,
Abbasi said that his wife Naheed Khan and PPP leader Amin Fahim sat on either side of Bhutto. In the rear of the vehicle, he along with Khalid Shahenshah and an attendant, Razzaq, shared the seat. In the front, the security chief sat alongside the driver. Abbasi said that there was firing before the suicide bomb attack. “I don’t know who opened the hatch of the vehicle. It was not my responsibility. It may have been opened by Khalid Shehenshah,”he said.
Lucman told Abbasi that it was his raising of slogans that slowed the movement of the vehicles but Abbasi replied that the mike was handed to him by Ms Bhutto herself to raise party slogans.
Abbasi recalled that it was when these slogans were being raised that Ms Bhutto raised her head through the hatch to acknowledge party supporters.
Two shots were fired from the left side following which Ms Bhutto tried to sit down and at the same moment a blast took place in which Ms Bhutto hit her head on the latch, said Abbasi.
He also said that the video shows the firing came from the left side and
“this may not have hit her. Which bullet hit her remains a mystery.”
Anchor Lucman also told Abbasi that his
wife, Naheed Khan, was in constant touch with the authorities and it was they who said that a post mortem not be done. But Abbasi denied this and said Naheed Khan was in no position to rule out a post mortem.
On the issue, Abbasi said that the family of Ms Bhutto, specifically Mr Zardari, should have had the post-mortem done or the police should not have released the body without doing the post-mortem.
Abbasi also said that allegations against him and his wife, Naheed Khan, were false. “There were no investigations by Ms Bhutto against me or my wife.”
The anchor also called party member Akhlaq Guddu during the programme who alleged that Ms Naheed Khan had taken Rs10 lakh from him (Guddu) to have a party seat awarded. “I was supposed to pay Rs5 lakh more. I am ready to swear on the Holy Quran that this is what happened.”
Abbasi said this was a false charge but clearly stuttered( speak or utter with a spasmodic repetition or prolongation of sounds.
) as he said this.
Abbasi said that Naheed Khan’s party ticket was not cancelled by Ms Bhutto. “Naheed had withdrawn it,”he revealed.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2010.
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BB assassination probe: ‘Murder plot hatched at brigadier’s home’
GHQ ready to put any accused officer on trial as president keeps military leadership in the loop. ISLAMABAD: A fresh probe has uncovered the role of nine men, including an army brigadier, in the December 27, 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The assassination plot was hatched in the official residence of the army brigadier mentioned in the investigation report.
The findings of the probe, conducted under the interior ministry’s supervision, have deliberately been kept under wraps — even from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s leading lights. The report is in the possession of Interior Minister Rehman Malik and has only been seen by President Asif Ali Zardari in its entirety.
Earlier this week, President Zardari temporarily shelved plans to share the contents of the inquiry report. The president was keen to first take the army leadership into confidence before ordering the arrest of certain uniformed personnel over their alleged involvement in Benazir’s assassination.
Five of the nine co-conspirators are still alive, according to the inquiry report. They were the ones who hired the killers and gave them shelter and logistical support. The five men will now be formally charged-sheeted and put on trial. The remaining four men, including those sent to kill Benazir, are already dead.
Both logistical support and rehearsals for the murder were arranged by uniformed persons, who were part of the plot. Militant groups, which were working closely with the nine plotters, provided the manpower.
It has also been confirmed to The Express Tribune that the joint investigation team had traced two new mobile phone sims that were used to communicate on the day Benazir was assassinated.
Sources said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had drawn up a tough questionnaire for General Pervez Musharraf on the basis of investigations conducted by the joint investigation team. The questions were framed once the role of the nine plotters became clear and the inquiry team managed to lay its hands on the main accused who was part of the plot to eliminate Benazir.
Sources said that Zardari was still undecided on how to handle the more explosive contents of the inquiry report. They claimed that President Zardari had deliberately withheld presentation of the inquiry report before the PPP central executive committee in Naudero.
Although Zardari had agreed in principle to make the report public, he wanted to give it some more thought. The president and his party leaders are keen to fight off the somewhat popular impression that they are disinterested in tracking down Benazir’s killers.
At one stage, President Zardari had made up his mind to unveil the inquiry report on Benazir’s third death anniversary, sources said. But he changed his mind at the eleventh hour and told the interior minister to drop the idea for the time being. The absence of Bilawal Bhutto from the CEC meeting was only used as a pretext to delay the presentation of the report. The president did not want the present army leadership to be caught off guard when the names of certain uniformed persons feature in the report.
For their part, the military leadership signalled their willingness to cooperate with the civilian government and put any accused military officer on trial, sources said. Even when a cabinet inquiry team led by Rauf Chaudhry was constituted, the military leadership had backed the initiative to an extent that the director general of Military Intelligence, Nadeem Ejaz, was made available to a three-member inquiry committee.
Sources said that the committee chairman was even told by the top military authorities that a serving lieutenant general would be available round the clock for as many days as they need for questioning, till they reached any conclusion about his innocence or guilt.
The interior minister refused to comment on the inquiry report on the pretext that the matter was in a court of law. When asked whether he intended to share the findings of the probe with the PPP’s CEC members, the minister said he would definitely place the inquiry report before his party’s elders.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2010.
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