Musharraf rejects intelligence agencies role Benazir's assassination
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, Jan 4, IRNA
Pakistan-Musharraf
President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday rejected the impression that Pakistan's military or intelligence agencies were involved in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
The President said the government had in November stopped Bhutto from going to Liaquat Bagh park in the city of Rawalpindi where she was assassinated on December 27 because of alerts from intelligence agencies about threats to her life.
"This time she went of her volition, ignoring the threat," he said, terming several buildings as a "vulnerable place".
President Musharraf on Wednesday sought the help of Britain's Scotland Yard to help Pakistani investigators in inquiry into Benazir Bhutto's death.
He ruled out the involvement of Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies in the assassination.
"No intelligence agency of Pakistan is capable of motivating or indoctrinating a man to blow himself up," he said. He added one has to find out who gained the most from Bhutto's killing. "Would I and the government be the maximum gainer? Or is there someone else who could gain more?"
President Musharraf also made it clear that Bhutto had exposed herself to risk by emerging from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle while leaving Liaquat Bagh after addressing an election rally.
"Her vehicle was bulletproof. (Pakistan People's Party leader Makhdoom) Amin Fahim was on her left and Nahid Khan was on her right.
Nobody gets hurt, only her (Bhutto) when she rises through the sun-roof," he said.
Asked if Bhutto had been alerted of the threats to her life, Musharraf said, "Whether we knew of the threat perception to Benazir Bhutto and whether she was informed of the threat? Yes, indeed she was."
"In addition to alerts from domestic intelligence agencies about threats to Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan had also been warned by the intelligence service of a friendly foreign country that sent a special envoy with a letter containing information about the threat. This information was conveyed to her," Musharraf said.
He said he had asked Bhutto to take measures for her safety but "she ignored it".
Asked if there had been any shortcomings in the security provided to Bhutto, he said, "The lapse was not on the government's side." Bhutto had been given four mobile police squads comprising 30 personnel led by an officer she had hand-picked, he said.
Over 1,000 policemen had been deployed at Liaquat Bagh, there were about five walk-through gates and a bulletproof rostrum and policemen had been stationed on the roofs of nearby buildings. It was the responsibility of the PPP's leadership to have ensured that Bhutto did not expose herself to unnecessary risks, Musharraf said.
He pointed out that there had been 19 suicide bombings in the last quarter of 2007 in which 400 people were killed and 900 wounded, and all of them had been traced back to Pakistani Taliban commanders Baitullah Mehsud from South Waziristan and Maulana Fazlullah from Swat valley in North West Frontier Province.
He said that Mehsood and Fazalullah are involved in attacks on Pakistani security forces and intelligence officials and also their children.
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