ISLAMABAD, 6 January 2008 — British detectives yesterday began examining evidence in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto even as her husband called the exercise meaningless and repeated his demand for a UN investigation.
Armed commandos enforced a security cordon as Scotland Yard detectives made their first inspection of the Liaquat Bagh where Benazir was murdered as she left a campaign rally on Dec. 27.
The arrival of the five-man British squad on Friday has only deepened the conspiracy theories swirling around the gun-and-bomb attack on Benazir.
“The Scotland Yard team is examining the venue where she addressed a rally and the site where she was attacked,” a Rawalpindi police officer said.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has blamed the attack on an alleged Al-Qaeda militant and says Benazir died from an accidental head wound sustained as she ducked for cover as a gunman opened fire on her motorcade. But officials from her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) say she died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of Benazir, yesterday accused elements within the government of responsibility for her murder and urged Britain and the United States to support a UN investigation into the killing.
“An investigation conducted by the government of Pakistan will have no credibility, in my country or anywhere else,” Zardari said in a commentary published in The Washington Post. “One does not put the fox in charge of the hen house.” Zardari now heads the PPP, which intends to contest elections next month.
Zardari reiterated earlier demands that a UN probe like the one that investigated the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was the only way to reveal the truth about the murder. He urged “friends of democracy in the West, in particular the United States and Britain, to endorse the call for such independent investigation.”
PPP officials said Zardari was due to fly out of Pakistan for Dubai, where his children and ailing mother-in-law live. His unexpected departure has fueled speculation that Benazir’s mother Nusrat Bhutto is gravely ill.
— Additional input from agencies
