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Police charge Zardari with attempted suicide

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari was "slightly wounded" today when he attempted to commit suicide with a broken drinking glass, police said.

But critics of the government said Zardari was tortured and police had fabricated the attempted suicide report.

Bhutto dismissed the report of an attempted suicide as "rubbish and outlandish", said her spokesman Farhatullah Babar, who contacted her in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Babar, Bhutto said: "This is an attempt by the government to cover up and hide the torture inflicted on Senator Zardari with an intent to murder him."

There were conflicting reports about whether Zardari was admitted to hospital. Bhutto's information secretary Munawar Shurewardy said Zardari was rushed to "an unknown hospital".

But police later said he was still in custody at the Crimes Investigation Agency's headquarters in the congested heart of Karachi, the hometown of Bhutto and her husband.

But neither Zardari's lawyers nor his family members have been able to see him.

Bhutto is in the UAE where the couple's three young children have been living for the past one year because their parents fear for their safety in Pakistan.

According to Babar, Bhutto accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief's government of trying to destroy her by attacking her family.

"She thinks that the regime is after the Bhutto family," said Babar. "They want to eliminate the Bhutto family and as a first and important step they want to eliminate the spouse of the Opposition leader, Ms Bhutto, to weaken her politically and emotionally."

Zardari has been charged with attempting suicide, a criminal offence in Pakistan punishable by a prison term.

"He was beaten up so badly and he was bleeding so fiercely that they had to say something," said Arshad Wasif, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.

According to the government-run Associated Press of Pakistan, Zardari "became enraged [while being interrogated] and broke a drinking glass and tried to cut his throat with a piece of broken glass".

A police officer scuffled with Zardari and retrieved the piece of glass, but was slightly injured in the process, said APP.

Zardari's lawyer, Azizullah Sheikh, said he saw his client yesterday and "then he complained that he was being tortured".

Also yesterday, the Sind high court ordered the government to return Zardari to the hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for a chronic back ailment, the details of which were not released.

Zardari has been in jail since his wife's government was dismissed in 1996 on corruption charges. Police said the CIA was interrogating him in connection with the 1995 shooting death of retired judge Nisam Ahmed when he attempted the suicide.

"We know that he would never attempt to commit suicide... He was in good spirits," Shurewardy said.

Zardari also faces another charge of murder in connection with the 1996 shooting death of Bhutto's estranged brother Murtaza.

Last month he was convicted, along with Bhutto, on a charge of corruption, sentenced to five years in jail and fined $8.6 million.

The couple faces several other charges of corruption. Both have steadfastly maintained their innocence.

Bhutto has said she will not return to Pakistan unless it is certain that she will not be arrested.

In an interview with the Associated Press today, Zardari's sister Fauzia Zardari said she has been trying to see her brother, but police have so far refused. She said she feared for his life.

"They have brought in the Punjab police to torture my brother," she said. "We are afraid for his life."

AP

EARLIER REPORT:
Zardari goes on fast to protest against harassment

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