Print

Mail

wiki links

New chief to head probe into attack on Benazir Bhutto

A new chief investigator has been appointed to probe the suicide attack on opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, after she alleged the previous officer was complicit in the torture of her husband in 1999, an official said yesterday.

Saud Mirza, the chief of criminal investigations at Karachi, will now head the five-man team probing last week's bombing of Bhutto's homecoming parade that killed 136 people, said Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem, the home secretary of Sindh Province.

"There is no other change in the team," Mohtarem said.

The Sindh police chief replaced the previous chief investigator, Manzar Mughal, after Bhutto, back from eight years in exile, claimed Mughal had been present while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was tortured in custody on corruption charges in 1999.

Bhutto, who escaped injury in the bombing, has blamed Islamic militants for the attack on her, but has also accused elements in the government and the security services of complicity, demanding international experts be called in to help in the investigation -- a call rejected by the government.

The appointment changes nothing and the inquiry remains inadequate, said Farhutallah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party.

"Our concerns were the inquiry should be conducted by international experts and that has not happened. The more it gets delayed the more the crucial evidence will be lost," he said.

On Wednesday, a statement from the party dubbed the present inquiry as "inept," citing a lack of arrests of suspects and confusion over the cause of the blast.

Authorities say it was likely carried out by two suicide bombers and have released a picture of one of the bombers but have yet to identify him.

The attack has raised fears about Pakistan's stability amid a rising Islamic militancy.
This story has been viewed 911 times.