Pressure mounts on Pakistan for Benazir murder probe

Pressure mounted on Pakistan government to hold probe into the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as authorities remained tight lipped after an independent UN report blamed security officials for "failing" to protect her.

"The government is not oblivious to its duties and is investigating the murder of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto," Farhatullah Babar, Presidential spokesman was quoted as saying by state TV.

Babar said the government was studying the report and would come out with a detailed reaction. "We always insisted that the government led by former President Musharraf was responsible for the killing of Benazir Bhutto," Babar said.

The UN panel's report has raised questions about Musharraf's regime only alerting Bhutto about security threats to her life without framing any security plan to protect her, he said. Babar also said the report had completely cleared Zardari and his family of being involved in any way in Bhutto's killing.

His comments came as the UN report said, security arrangements by Pakistan's federal and local authorities to protect assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto were "fatally insufficient and ineffective."

The report released late last night said was highly critical of the decision within hours of the killing to wash out the crime scene and not to conduct an autopsy. The UN Commission of Inquiry, appointed last year by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the request of the Pakistani Government, reached no conclusion as to the organisers and sponsors behind the attack in which a 15-year-old suicide bomber blew up Bhutto's vehicle in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

Several senior leaders of Benazir's Pakistan Peoples Party have called for investigation in the country to determine as to who were behind her assassination. Naheed Khan, former political secretary to Benazir Bhuto who was with her at the time of attack, Friday urged President Asif Ali Zardari to carry out investigation after the UN inquiry report.

President Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, had told a meeting last year that he knew the assassins of Benzair Bhutto and will disclose their names at appropriate time."It is appropriate time to expose those who had part of the conspiracies to eliminate Benazir Bhutto," Naheed Khan said. She said that security was not up to the mark and even then government of Pervez Musharraf did not provide jammers.

She said incumbent Interior Minister Rehman Malik was in-charge of Benazir security and he should be asked about the lapses.The report said the then federal Government under Pervez Musharraf lacked a comprehensive security plan, relying instead on provincial authorities, but then failed to issue to them the necessary instructions.

Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi, spokesman to Pervez Musharraf, rejected the UN report for security lapse for Benazir Bhutto and said the government has wasted millions of dollars from national exchequer on the UN probe and there is no result. Senator Safdar Abbasi of the PPP said that it is up to the government to trace the killers of Benazir Bhutto after the UN inquiry report.

Safdar Abbasi said the then police officer in Rawalpindi Saood Aziz must be asked as why he stopped doctors from Benazir's postmortem and why attack site was washed away to remove evidences. He said the government needs a set up enquiry team to probe the murder of Benazir Bhutto in the direction given by UN inquiry report.