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27 terror groups involved in BBs murder: Malik

Posted on: Wed February 22, 2012

Karachi Rehman Malik says the government will ask Interpol to arrest ex-President Pervez Musharraf. This he said while briefing the Sindh Assembly about the BB murder plot. Malik said the government would seek Musharraf"s arrest because he allegedly failed to provide adequate security to Benazir Bhutto.

Interior Minister briefed the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday about investigations into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, but the startling aspect was that the culprits are yet to be apprehended. Rehman Malik informed the house that Benazir Bhutto preferred reconciliation for the cause of democracy and held talks with the then President General Pervez Musharraf. He said when Benazir Bhutto asked the former President to provide her security he told her not to come to Pakistan before the general elections and if she did she would be responsible for any consequences. He told the Sindh Assembly about details of the accused who was traced by using old SIM after one and a half years.

Malik added that the accused disclosed all the details of the incident including regarding their stay in a seminary, collection of weapons and even the room of the seminary where they stayed. The interior minister said had he mentioned the name of the seminary earlier, people would have been blaming him of leaking the evidence. He said platform of Madarsa Haqqani was used during the planning of the murder.

He said Benazir Bhutto murder case has been mostly resolved but some information is sensitive which cannot be made public. He said the planners of the attack on BB are still to be arrested.

It seems as though not much has been achieved in the Benazir Bhutto murder case as Interior Minister Rehman Malik not only admitted that planners of the murder are still at large, but also insisted that more time is required to collect further evidence. He blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the Haqqani network and the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for planning the murder and said 27 terrorist groups helped in executing the plan.

Malik and the Chief of Joint Investigation Team Khalid Qureshi gave a detail presentation with the help of audio/video footage, showing the suspects involved in the case. The Sindh lawmakers were told that the conspiracy was hatched in Fata and funds for the purpose also came from the same region.

The session was told that al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations had made Bhutto their target since a long time. Malik said several suspects were arrested during the investigation and 13 were being prosecuted.

He accused former president Pervez Musharraf for not providing adequate security to the former prime minister. He said that the government had decided to bring back Musharraf to the country and for this purpose red warrants would be issued through the Interpol. A legal expert said Interpol, an international police organization, has the right to detain Musharraf and hand him over to Pakistan if it chooses to issue a warrant. The interior minister further revealed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his brother conspired to assassinate Ms Bhutto. "The government is trying hard to reach the bottom of the case," he said, expressing hope that the culprits will be brought to justice soon.

Pervez Musharraf and Taliban considered Benazir a threat, investigator of BB murder case Khalid Qureshi said. During the briefing to the legislators of Sindh Assembly Khalid said that Qari Hussain trained the bombers himself while Qari Ismail provided the suicide jackets to them. Khalid briefing the Assembly said that Benazir Bhutto faced threats after she returned to the country. According to him Qari Hussain was the trainer of the bombers in North Waziristan and he trained dozens of bombers and after the fatal attack on BB the talks between Baitullah Mahsood and Moulvi sahib were recorded, he said. Mahsood congratulated him during the telephonic conversation while Moulvi sahib told him that the "boys were brave" and that he will tell him the details once he met him.

Khalid said that Qari Ismail provided suicide jackets to the bomber while one Rafaqat took the bombers to Rawalpindi.

Khalid further said that the bombers were taken to Liaquat Bagh from Pir Widhai. They were armed with pistols and hand grenades, he added. The planner and the financier belong to FATA, Khalid said. He also talked about cell phone communications saying that one cell phone was used once for a single operation only and that it was not registered in the name of any terrorist. Young boys were prepared to carryout suicide attacks among whom Rasheed Turabi was the most educated and he was also involved in Kamra attack. Gul Hussain was made to carryout the suicide bombing. Khalid said that the real identification of Moulvi sahib is still a mystery but possibly it means Moulvi Anwar. One Naseer is also involved in the case. He said that BB died from severe wound to the head, on the both sides of it.

According to Khalid the commander used to talk to all the operators himself and they did not talk to each other.

"We will bring Musharraf back to the country soon with a red notice issued through Interpol," Malik told lawmakers in the provincial assembly. "We are in the final phase of doing this," he said without elaborating.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, while leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi. Musharraf, who has lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since August 2008, last month indefinitely delayed, plans to return home to contest elections after the government warned he would be arrested upon arrival. Pakistani courts have issued warrants for his arrest over the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a Baloch rebel leader in the southwest, and the 2007 assassination of Bhutto.

Khalid Qureshi referred to the Lal Masjid operation as the likely reason for the increase in terrorism and said that Benazir Bhutto was a strong advocate against terrorism and supported the operation. On the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Qureshi said that the attacker fired bullets and blew himself up near the vehicle of the former prime minister and that his face had been reconstructed.

He also made a reference to the Scotland Yard investigation and said that according to their experts, Benazir had died due to a blow to the back of her head and also showed x-rays to substantiate this claim

Courtesy: Pakobserver