The day, when the Pakistan is propping itself for an unanimous leader through general election, the Rawalpindi police came with the conclusion after wrapping up the investigation that Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud had orchestrated the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Additional Inspector General of Police Chaudhary Abdul Majeed, who is investigating the Liaquat Bagh incident, said at a press conference that Meshud had conceived, funded and ordered the Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
"We have arrested five people in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and they have told us that Baitullah Mehsud approved the plan to kill her," he said.
The name of these five suspects arrested by the joint investigation team is Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah, Hussnain Gul, Rafaqat and Abdul Rashid Turabi, who later confessed being facilitators of Bhutto’s killing. Shah and Zaman were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan, while Gul and Rafaqat were apprehended in Rawalpindi.
Majid quoted the arrested accused as saying that Bilal alias Saeed-the suicide bomber-who blew himself up after firing two shots at Bhutto soon after the election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 last year had met Mehsud some weeks before the attack.
For the assassination purpose Mehsud, the chief of the militant organisation Tehrik-e-Taliban in based in South Waziristan had transferred Rs 4 lakh to a cleric named Qari Ismail, who facilitated five militants to kill Bhutto. These militants had planned to target Bhutto several times in different cities of Peshawar, Karachi but could not get successful until they finally succeeded in killing her in Rawalpindi, he said.
Abdul Majeed said the accused had disclosed that they got militant training at campus run by madrassas in Waziristan agency in FATA and Mansehra district of NWFP.
Police were still looking for Bilal's accomplice Ikramullah, Majeed said.
Rashid was also the mastermind of a missile attack on the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra, while Shah had obtained jehadi training at a madrassa situated in Karachi. After his training, Shah was sent to Waziristan and asked by his commander to target Bhutto.
The Lal Masjid operation had persuaded the militants to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Islam. Majeed said the militants had fear as well as anger against Bhutto, who according to them following the US agenda and they had doubt that she must launch an operation against the Taliban and jehadis if come to power. Another reason for her killing Majeed quoted accused as claiming that Islam does not allow women to rule.
He also said the accused had also been tasked to kill former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and they had visited the Parliament House for the purpose before targeting Ms Bhutto, but that could not bore fruit.
Monday: The D-Day
Today, people in Pakistan are voting in a crucial election overshadowed by political violence and fears of unfair voting.
After eight years of military rule the civil governance in Pakistan will return in Pakistan and its future will be deciding today. Although today’s election is not for deciding a president, but the outcome of vote is significant for the President Musharraf’s future ruling.
The parliamentary poll in Pakistan was delayed after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27 in Rawalpindi during election rally.
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Read More: Tehri | Ahmed Nagar
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