KARACHI, 25 October 2007 — Pakistani police raided the house of one of Benazir Bhutto’s close aides to arrest him over a murder in 1998, but the official was not at home, police said yesterday.
Zulfiqar Mirza, a close friend of Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, accompanied the former prime minister on her return from eight years of self-imposed exile last week, and has been involved in coordinating her security.
Benazir’s movements have been restricted in the aftermath of a suicide attack that killed at least 139 people during her homecoming procession through Karachi last Thursday.
“The police is victimizing the people in charge of Benazir’s security, so that they go underground and can’t protect her, and thereby restrict her movement,” Jameel Soomro, the party’s media coordinator, said.
Mirza is wanted in connection with the murder of former Pakistan Steel Mills chairman Sajjad Hussain, who was gunned down three days before he was due to testify before a panel investigating allegations of corruption against Zardari.
President Pervez Musharraf eased the way for Benazir’s return this month by issuing an amnesty to protect her and her husband from prosecution in several corruption charges.
Zardari was imprisoned for eight years before being released in 2004, five years after Gen. Musharraf came to power in a coup that overthrew then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Meanwhile, the senior officer heading the probe into bloody suicide bombings targeting Benazir has withdrawn from the case following her objections, officials said yesterday.
Benazir accused chief investigator Manzur Mughal of involvement in the torture of her husband while in police custody in 1999 under the government of former Premier Sharif.
“The officer has asked to be sent on leave and a new officer will be appointed to head the investigation,” Sindh Home Secretary Ghulam Muhammad Mohtaram told AFP, adding Benazir’s concerns were the reason for his request.
Police said yesterday they have not yet received a letter containing a death threat supposedly from a “friend of Al-Qaeda” against Benazir.
Benazir said late Tuesday extremists were trying to derail Pakistan’s return to democracy after her lawyer received the letter threatening to kill the ex-premier “anywhere we get the opportunity.”
Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said Benazir’s aides had not yet passed on the letter, making it difficult for investigators probing the blast to determine whether the threat was real.
“We have learned through the media that they have received a threatening letter. It is information, not a piece of intelligence,” he told AFP.
“We will be in a position to pursue it once they share the information with us officially about the latest threat,” he said.
