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Who killed Bhutto? – Fingers of suspicion in various directions |
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Harjit Singh
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who was entertaining the hope of leading her country as Prime Minister for the third time, is a great setback to the restoration of democracy in Pakistan and a great loss of face to President Musharraf who had taken all the risks to have the PPP chief and former Premier Nawaz Sharif return to Pakistan at the behest of the United States and Saudi Arabia. But however sincere Musharraf may have been in his desire to restore democracy and hold fair and transparent parliamentary elections, the assassination of Bhutto has left many question marks on his own sincerity and some elements in Pakistan’s intelligence agencies who may be soft on jihadis and out of the control of the President. Musharraf has no doubt invited a Scotland Yard team to investigate the assassination conspiracy charge and has even publicly said that he had warned her against frequent public appearances which posed threat to her security. But Musharraf needs to answer many questions both about the security of Bhutto and what happened after her death. Even when Benazir returned to Pakistan, her home-coming procession had come under terrorist attack and the two explosions killed nearly 140 people in Karachi. The Government then failed to explain why the street lights suddenly went off before the twin explosions. The darkness helped the suicide bombers to attack the convoy and Bhutto had a providential escape. The Government should have provided Benazir adequate security because days before she left Dubai she had written two letters to Musharraf naming three officials who, she thought, had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her. But, perhaps Musharraf took the disclosure lightly and there is no sign of his taking any steps to sideline them.
This time again, many questions remain unanswered. First is, why the road where the assassination took place, was suddenly washed by water instead of quarantining it so that forensic experts could examine it for any evidence of the plot. Secondly, why no post-mortem was done on Bhutto’s body. It is being said that the police chief did not allow it. But, doctors should have gone by the rules rather than the dictates of the police chief. Now, the Interior Ministry spokesman says that if the PPP wants, her body can be exhumed for post-mortem, a ridiculous demand knowing full well that her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will not allow this.
Her assassination could have been related to a dinner meeting the same evening Benazir Bhutto was planning to have with two US Congressmen to whom she was going to present a dossier detailing the plans of the intelligence agencies to rig the elections.
And, even before the Scotland Yard team could land on Pakistani soil, the Interior Ministry spokesman, Javed Iqbal Cheema, went public to say that she did not die from the firing of the gun and instead got her skull fractured when she hit a metal lever of the roof-top of her Toyota Land Cruiser through which she was waving at her supporters while leaving the rally in Rawalpindi. The Interior Minister first rubbished the spokesman and asked to be forgiven for his remarks but in a reversal of the stand he again said that she died of skull fracture and not by the firing of the gun. But a video footage on British Channel 4 has belied his claim because a gunman was clearly seen firing shots at her and her hair and shawl flying in the air under the impact of the firing, before she fell into her car. It is surprising what the Musharraf Government is seeking to gain by hiding the truth that she was killed by a gunman, unless it has something to hide. The Government is insisting that the killing was carried out by the Al-Qaeda and in support of this has released transcripts of a conversation Baitullah Mehsud had with one of his aides after Bhutto’s assassination and congratulating them at the success of the mission. Asif Ali Zardari has, however, rubbished the claim that the Al-Qaeda was behind his wife’s killing because, he said, the outfit had nothing to fear from the PPP. Only those who felt threatened by the national reach of Benazir Bhutto and her party in the run-up to the elections could be behind her assassination.
All the lollipops that Musharraf offered such as doffing the Army uniform, lifting the emergency, withdrawing corruption charges against Bhutto and allowing her and Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan to fight the elections, have come to a naught.
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