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Scotland Yard team to help with probe into Bhutto's death

A team of British police is preparing to leave for Pakistan to help investigate the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and hopes to be ready in 24 hours, a Scotland Yard spokesman said yesterday.

"A team of officers will be going out to Pakistan and are currently making travel arrangements," said the spokesman after the British government agreed this week to a Pakistani request for help.

"Negotiations are ongoing and we hope the preparations will be completed in the next 24 hours and they will be flying out as soon as possible," he said.

On Wednesday British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said London had agreed to send "technical experts" following a request from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after last week's killing.

The request was an about-face for the Musharraf administration, which originally ruled out foreign help.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's opposition parties demanded better security yesterday as the country prepared for a lengthy campaign ahead of Feb. 18 elections.

The country's main political parties confirmed they would resume the race to restore democracy but said the government must ensure candidates are protected from the dangers posed by anyone determined to disrupt the polls.

"We would like the government to provide foolproof security to Sharif, including a bulletproof vehicle," said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party of two-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "We will continue our election campaign but we are revising the party chief's program of public engagements in view of the current security situation."

The PML-N spokesman said that the party was not deterred by the vote delay and was determined to wage a lengthy nationwide campaign despite security concerns.

"Although the elections are now more than a month away, the delay will not cause any harm to the campaign of our party, which is determined to restore genuine democracy in Pakistan," Iqbal said.

Pakistan's government had provided Bhutto with a bulletproof vehicle and police security, but many of her supporters blame Musharraf for failing to stop the gun and suicide-bomb attack that killed her in Rawalpindi.

Her Oct. 18 homecoming from self-imposed exile saw nearly 140 people killed in a suicide bombing on her convoy in Karachi.
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