Benazir’s request for private security was denied by Musharraf says Senator John Kerry

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on December 27, was denied private security by President Pervez Musharraf, US Senator John Kerry has alleged.

“Benazir told me shortly before she was assassinated that Musharraf had denied her private security,” the Daily Times quoted Kerry as saying.

Refusing to divulge further details, Kerry said that he had contacted the US State Department to arrange security for Benazir after her October 18 homecoming rally was attacked in Karachi in which over 140 people were killed.

Read more...

US Consulate in Karachi was next target of Benazir’s murder suspect

A teenage suicide bomber, who was arrested in Dera Ismail Khan for his involvement in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, has told interrogators that his next target was the US Consulate in Karachi.

Sources said that Aitzaz had confessed during preliminary interrogation that he had been asked to attack Bhutto in Karachi if she escaped the attack in Rawalpindi.

But after Bhutto’s assassination, Aitzaz had been directed to move to Karachi to target the US Consulate, they said.

Read more...

'Scotland Yard team free to probe suspects arrested in Benazir murder case'Islamabad, Jan 23: The Scotland Yard team probing int

: The Scotland Yard team probing into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto would be free to interrogate Aitezaz Shah, the 15-year-old arrested in connection with the case, said Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema.

The British team is expected to come back to Pakistan in a couple of days with a final report on the case, Cheema said, adding that the report would be presented to the local investigating team and is likely to be shared with the media, the Daily Times reported.

Read more...

Eight US senators ask for UN probe into Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Eight US senators have asked President George Bush for an immediate and credible investigation to be conducted under the aegis of the UN into the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto.

In a letter addressed to the President, US senators have also asked for the reinstatement of sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, as well as other dismissed judges.

Besides, they have demanded for the release of those who had arrested during the emergency in Pakistan.

Read more...

Benazir ‘became a victim of US agenda’: Gen Aslam Beg

Lahore, : Former Pakistan Army Chief General (retired) Mirza Aslam Beg has said that Benazir Bhutto “became a victim of US agenda” after she refused to cut a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf.

“Having realised the ground realities after her arrival in Pakistan, she retreated from commitments she had made with the US on Pakistan’s nuclear assets, Dr AQ Khan and the Taliban and became a victim of the agenda of the US,” the Dawn News quoted Aslam Beg, as saying.

He said Benazir would not have become Prime Minister after the 1988 elections had she been unpopular with the army.

Read more...

Jesse Jackson calls for national reconciliation in Pakistan

US civil right activist Jesse Jackson has called for peace and reconciliation in Pakistan, which has been roiled by violence after the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

"We all have our interest in conflict resolution in Pakistan. Several groups somehow choose negotiation over confrontation and arrived at an enlightened compromise that there might be peace in Pakistan which is good for Pakistan and give security to India and the whole region," Jackson told reporters while on a visit to the capital to deliver a lecture on Mahatma Gandhi.

Read more...

Benazir’s last authored book to be launched on February 20

Benazir Bhutto’s last authored book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West, will be formally released at the National Press Club here on February 20.

Bhutto co-authored the book with her long-time friend and associate Mark Siegel in the last few months of her life.

According to the Daily Times, the book embodies her vision for the Islamic world.

She completed it just before her assassination on December 27 last year in Rawalpindi.

The National Book Club’s Book and Author Committee is hosting the launch.
Read more...

Bhutto's alleged killers detained for 10 more days

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi has extended the remand of two men suspected to be members of a squad of suicide bombers that killed former premier Benazir Bhutto by another ten days.

The two men — 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman — were produced in court under tight security on Saturday. Shah had earlier told investigators that he was next in line to target Benazir, who was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.

City Police had booked the two under Sections 302/24, 435/36, 120-B, 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and 4/5 of the Explosive Act.

According to the Daily Times, Judge Chaudhry Habibullah has ordered the accused to be produced before him again on February 12.

Read more...

Musharraf never delivered on promises, says Benazir’s book

Assassinated former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has revealed in her forthcoming book – “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West” – that President Pervez Musharraf’s regime never delivered on whatever it had promised to her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) between 2002 and 2007.

According to the Daily Times, the negotiations between the two went on by fits and starts, and failed every time “because I (Benazir) insisted on a road map to democracy.”

Read more...

I didn’t vow to fulfil Benazir’s mission: Nawaz

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and former premier Nawaz Sharif has denied saying he would complete Benazir Bhutto’s mission.

Talking to a private TV channel here on Tuesday, Sharif, however, expressed solidarity with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Nawaz said he “had made the mistake of his life” by promoting Musharraf to the army chief in 1998.

Read more...

PPP sets up camps for Benazir's chehlum

Garhi Khuda Bux (Sindh)The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has set up camps around the Bhutto mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux in the country's Sindh Province for people wanting to attend the Chehlum (40th day) ceremony of its martyred chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Cassettes of Benazir’s speeches are being circulated and aired in the camps.

Some people are arriving by foot for the solemn ceremony that will be held under strict security, reports The News.

Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide bomb-cum gun shot attack in Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh area on December 27, 2007.

Read more...

Scotland Yard believes Benazir died of a head, not bullet injury

Scotland Yard detectives probing the December 27 assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are likely to agree with the findings of the President Musharraf-backed caretaker government that she was a victim of a head injury and not shot dead.

According to a report by The Times, Scotland Yard risks inflaming the already heated pre-election political atmosphere in Pakistan today when it delivers its report on Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

Read more...

Pakistan cops arrest 2 “important” suspects in Benazir killing

Police in Pakistan arrested two “very important alleged terrorists” from Rawalpindi on Thursday morning for their alleged involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Benazir was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27. A British Scotland Yard team is assisting the Pakistani investigators to trace her killers.

Read more...

Scotland Yard's investigation credible: US

The United States has described the Scotland Yard's investigation into the killing of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto as "credible".

"Certainly, I understand that this is an emotional issue both for members of her family as well as many people in Pakistan who supported Benazir Bhutto. In terms of the investigation itself by the Scotland Yard, we view this as a credible investigation by independent outside experts," US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Read more...

A sympathy wave for Benazir Bhutto's party: Myth or reality?

: In the wake of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, election talk has centred on a ‘sympathy wave’ at the ballot box for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

As politicians have sparred over and commentators tussled with the wave, number crunching and dispassionate electoral analysis has been pushed aside.

On the eve of Pakistan’s eighth general election, little light has been shed on the wave phenomenon. What constitutes a wave and will there be one? Does the wave even matter?

Read more...

International deals enabled Benazir’s return to Pak: Zardari

The Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that his wife Benazir Bhutto had returned to Pakistan as a result of international agreements, but after her assassination, all agreements stand nullified.

Zardari told the Voice of America that he could not reveal the details of the agreements.

He said he was very upset with those who had brokered the agreements, as they were not supporting his appeal for a United Nations investigation into his wife’s murder.

Read more...

Benazir’s assassination has heightened hostility towards Pak Punjab

The death of former premier Benazir Bhutto, a native of Sindh province, has heightened hostility toward Punjab, Pakistan’s centre of power, the Los Angeles Times has said.

On the day Benazir died, Yousef Leghari watched his native Sindh province erupt.

For five days, people vented their rage by firing weapons, and setting fire to vehicles and buildings. Bhutto was Sindh's native daughter, and she had been assassinated.

Read more...

Musharraf knew of specific threat to my life: Benazir’s book

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has written in her book that she was aware of suicide squads likely being sent from the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas to try to assassinate her immediately on her return.
The book was released on Tuesday in New York, London and Islamabad.
The book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West” was finished just two days before she was killed.
“I had actually received from a sympathetic Muslim foreign government, the names and cellphone numbers of designated assassins,” Bhutto wrote.
Read more...

Benazir's assassination case: Two accused admit guilt

: The two accused in the ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination on December 27 on Wednesday confessed of committing the crime in the judicial court here.

The suspects - Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat - were produced before a Rawalpindi magistrate court.

Both the accused were then sent to Adiala Jail

Two other suspects, Aitizaz Shah and Sherzaman, who were arrested from Dera Ismael Khan, are already in the custody of Rawalpindi police.
Read more...

Benazir Bhutto's book to be published in several languages

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s book “Reconciliation – Islam, Democracy and the West” will be published in several languages, including Urdu.

The book that been published by Harper Collins in the United States and Simon and Schuster in Europe and Asia was described by former Time Magazine publisher Walter Isaacson as an "extraordinarily important and beautiful work" that can be a brilliant manifesto for challenging militants in the Islamic world.

Read more...