Benazir’s murder was solved, Punjab police tell UN

[niazikhan2]

LAHORE: As Pakistan and the world wait for the UN report on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination today (Thursday), it has been revealed that the Punjab police had already told the UN Inquiry Commission that the murderers of Benazir had been traced, arrested and are being tried.

Her assassination was an open and shut case for the Punjab police, which had instantly solved it way back in February 2008 by tracing the mastermind of the Liaquat Bagh suicide attack as well as the suicide bomber, who had blown himself up on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, the UN has been told.

Whether the UN report takes this investigation into account and how much importance it is given will be seen in the report of the UN commission.

According to well informed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the United Nations Inquiry Commission, headed by Heraldo Munoz, was informed by the CID officials during the course of its investigations that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto had been masterminded by the slain Ameer of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Commander Baitullah Mehsud and the bomber, who exploded himself outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, was one Saeed alias Bilal, a resident of South Waziristan Agency.

According to official documents provided to the UN Inquiry Commission by the CID Punjab, a group of 12 militants was actually dispatched to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, a day prior to Benazir Bhutto’s December 27, 2007 election rally, to physically eliminate the PPP leader, who was touring Punjab in connection with her party’s election campaign. The FIR of the Benazir Bhutto murder case was registered by the Rawalpindi police under sections 302/324,435,436,120-B/4/5ESA,7/ATA while investigations were carried out by the Additional Inspector General CID Punjab Chaudhry Abdul Majeed.

According to the CID documents, four of the 12 militants tasked to kill Benazir Bhutto belonged to Madrassa Haqqania in Akora Khattak near Peshawar, which is also referred to as Darul Uloom Haqqania. The Madrassa is being run by Maulana Samiul Haq, the pro-Taliban Ameer of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Three of the 12 TTP militants have been shown in the CID documents as already killed, including the suicide bomber. Of the remaining nine accused, five have already been arrested by police while the remaining four are still at large.

Additional Inspector General of the CID Punjab, Malik Mohammad Iqbal, when asked if the Punjab CID still owns its findings into the Benazir Bhutto murder case, said the assassination inquiry was actually conducted by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was headed by the then additional DIG CID and representatives of the Rawalpindi police.

He said it was a joint probe on the basis of which the challan of Benazir Bhutto murder case had been submitted with a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court, which still holds ground and the trial of the arrested accused is still on.

The three accused shown as already dead include the human bomb Saeed alias Bilal (r/o Waziristan), Nadir alias Qari Ismail (r/o Madrassa Haqqania, Akora Khattak) and Nasrullah r/o Madrassa Haqqania, Akora Khattak). Four other accused in the Benazir Bhutto murder, who are still at large and have already been declared proclaimed offenders include Ikramullah r/o South Waziristan, Abdullah alias Saddam r/o Mohmand Agency, Faiz alias Kiskit, an ex-student of Madrassa Haqqania, Akora Khattak and Abdur Rehman alias Noman alias Usman, an ex-student of Madrassa Haqqania.

The remaining five accused already in the custody of the Rawalpindi police and being tried for the Benazir Bhutto murder include Rafaqat, Hasnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Rasheed Ali and Aitzaz Shah.

According to the findings of the CID, Baitullah Mehsud had given Rs 400,000 to one Qari Ismail, who subsequently dispatched a group of suicide bombers and shooters to Rawalpindi to kill Benazir Bhutto.

The UN Commission was told by some senior CID officials that the TTP militants had planned to target Benazir Bhutto in different cities, wherever she was going in connection with her campaign, until she was finally killed.

According to the CID narrative, 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah from the Mansehra district of the NWFP, and his co-accomplice Sher Zaman, reportedly trained at Miramshah, were the first ones to be arrested after the Benazir Bhutto murder from Dera Ismail Khan by a joint investigation team of the Punjab police, headed by Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. Two more suspects, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat, were later arrested from Rawalpindi. Rasheed Ali was the last one to be nabbed but Aitzaz was the first one to have furnished some vital information to his interrogators pertaining to the Benazir murder.

As the police obtained physical remand of the arrested accused and broadened the scope of investigations, it was learnt that Aitzaz Shah had actually obtained Jihadi training from a well known Deobandi religious school in Karachi — Jamia Binoria, also referred to as Jamia Islamia and known for its pro-Taliban leanings. As per the CID report, after being brainwashed and trained to kill, Aitzaz was sent to South Waziristan from where he had travelled to Darul Uloom Haqqania Madrassa in Akora Khattak. Afterwards, Aitzaz was taken to a Jihadi training centre in Akora Khattak - Wali Mohammad Markaz and tasked with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

According to the CID findings, Baitullah had provided Rs 50,000, a suicide jacket and other necessary items to someone else, but he could not attack Benazir Bhutto. After his suicide bombers’ failure to hunt down the PPP chairperson in Karachi, Peshawar and other places, Baitullah Mehsud had assigned Qari Ismail of Akora Khattak and given him Rs 400,000 to execute the Benazir assassination plan. After reaching the Rawalpindi bus stand on December 26, the assailants had stayed at a Quaid-i-Azam colony house. In the evening, they visited the Liaquat Bagh site in a taxi and decided after surveying the area to hit their target from different directions during or after the public meeting.

As per the assassination plan, Saeed alias Bilal was to carry out the suicide attack in case he failed to shoot down Benazir while Ikramullah was to detonate himself if Saeed failed. Both Saeed and Ikramullah were provided logistics by Hasnain Gul, including an explosive-laden suicide jacket, a pistol and an optical device.

The assailants had reached the Committee Chowk in a taxi and later gone to the Liaquat Bagh via Iqbal Road and College Road. An unarmed militant went inside the Liaquat Bagh to give his accomplices updates about the movement of Benazir Bhutto, especially about her arrival and departure from the venue of the rally. As per the CID claims, the assailants had first attempted to enter the Liaquat Bagh to carry out a suicide attack close to the stage, but they had failed in their designs, chiefly due to foolproof security arrangements.

The UN Commission was further informed that several suicide bombers and sharp shooters were waiting for the PPP leader at the crime scene outside the Liaquat Bagh after their failure to enter the venue. Going by the CID account, the assailants had started chasing Benazir Bhutto as soon as she came out of the Liaquat Bagh and it was none other than the fearless PPP chairperson, who actually provided them with a golden opportunity to target her, when she decided to come out of her bullet proof vehicle Toyota Land Cruiser from its sunroof to wave to her cheerful supporters. That was the time gunshots were fired, aiming at Benazir Bhutto. As Saeed alias Bilal failed to hit Benazir Bhutto, he blew himself up, killing the PPP leader and 23 others, mostly on the spot. However, the Dopatta, which Benazir Bhutto was wearing at the time of the blast, could not be traced despite frantic efforts by the investigators.

Narrating the motivation of the crime, the CID findings say the accused had said during interrogations that they were annoyed over the pro-West approach of Benazir Bhutto who had returned to Pakistan at the behest of some foreign powers and, therefore, they feared a strong government action against the militants if she was allowed to come to power after the elections.

However, the fact remains that much before coming to power after the 2008 general elections; the PPP leadership had rejected the confession made by Aitzaz Shah and his other accomplices about their involvement in the Benazir Bhutto murder.

The then PPP spokesman and now presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar had described Aitzaz’s confession a cock and bull story intended to reduce pressure on the Musharraf regime, saying the arrested youth, who has already been declared a juvenile by the court, had been made to narrate exactly the kind of things the Pakistani authorities wanted to hear, backing up their earlier conclusions reached within hours of the Benazir Bhutto killing.

The trial of the five accused in Benazir Bhutto murder case was deferred on August 22, 2009 by the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court following a federal government request to transfer the case to the Federal Investigation Agency so as to enable it to arrive at a definitive conclusion. Subsequently, on August 25, 2009, the federal government had formed a high-level team to re-investigate the Benazir murder.

The Special Investigation Group of the FIA was assigned the task to fix criminal liability on the assassins and planners of the gun-and-bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto. It was announced that the SIG’s investigation would be parallel to the probe being carried out by the United Nations Inquiry Commission.

“The main reason for the fresh probe is that the inquiry report to be prepared by the UN Commission can’t be presented before any court of law as desired by the UN. The government requires a separate investigation report for a proper trial against the criminals in the court”, a senior FIA official had said on August 25 in Rawalpindi, adding that the United Nations report would have no legal standing and it could not be used for prosecution.

When this correspondent tried to take version of Jamia Binoria, Karachi, no responsible person was found. However, the person present there termed the Punjab police-CID report malicious and baseless. Expressing similar sentiments, a person in Madrassa Haqqania, Akora Khattak, said this report is part of the campaign to discredit religious schools.

[Raz]

I am still confused on two things:

1) Why did our authorities sweep up and wash down crime scene immediately and on whose orders they carried out that wiping out process. They wiped out evidences in such a manner like they themselves were culprits and were afraid of any leakage of information.

2) How did they know within a short span of time that attack was master minded by Bait ullah Mahsood? Were their security and investigation network that much efficient to detect criminals within minutes time? If yes then why can’t they stop these frequent blasts and terrorist activities?

This CIDs report seems to me a tailor made report. They have lots of jailed culprits in different crimes, it is not a big deal to brain wash and channelize these culprits in your own interest and get your stance accepted by these prisoners even if they never knew about and never remained part of such criminal activities. I strongly object on this report.
Murder of Benazir Bhutto was not a child’s play, it was result of international conspiracy and our internal network was used to execute that plan. Pakistan has remained victim of that international conspiracy since its inception. Our greedy and shortsighted rulers, and dictators have succumbed to these conspiracies due to their mean vested interests. We as a sane public should demand the publicity of real investigation report of Murder of Quaid Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaqat Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Zia ul Haq, Murtaza Bhutto, Nawab Akbar Bugti, Benazir Bhutto, chief security officer of Benazir Bhutto and some other national personalities.

Regards

[shah110]

I second the approach and point of view of Raz Bhai. This report really seems like a tailor made report to pacify the issue. I strongly oppose such type of illegitimate reports. We have been made fool many times already but now time have changed. So be careful, the youth of Pakistan is well aware of all the conspiracy theories about their country.

Regards

[rose_pak]

Pakistan has always been a center stage of conspiracies in terms of her leadership murders, exiles and executions. Raz is absolutely right that we still have to get the right information on the murders of the Quaid, Liaqat Ali Khan, ZA Bhutto, Zia ul Haq and Benazir Bhutto.

Shah and Raz, intentions are good and it is always nice for one to be positive however the ground situtation suggests that this type of invistigation neither made independently nor public. We, Pakistanis, have been deciveived many times and may be in future.

Let's hope that this time the history will not revisit itself and we will be able to get accurate information about the death of Benazir Bhutto. However, this is very difficult to happen keeping in view the historic investigations in Pakistan.

[niazikhan2]

http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwi...&Date=20100416

[Maha Khan]

its clear that In Pakistan fair investigation is not possible..we have lost our supreme leader,but we will not be to know about her killer...

[javed_iqbal7863]

why, leadership of PPP is not thinking like you people. they have to take solid steps to investigate this matter. why, Asif Ali zardari is not keen interested to disclose Benazeer's murder issue as he has announced that he knows every thing about this matter. I think there is some thing fishy fishy.

[farwa.abbas]

well i just dont understand tht y after every blast or sumthing like this our police and agencies simply blame taliban for this, we all knw tht india, america and other our so called friends r interfereing in our country and trying their best to destroy us. as far as the PPP leadership is concerned it seems tht they r not serious about this investigation as they had great benefits fom Bibi's death... in investigations postmortem reports play a very imp role but they refused tht at tht time so yes it would be difficult for all of us to digest the UN report

[DEADLYDOCTOR]

what more can be done?
UN report is inconclusive and has nothing new.
who is going to be arrested and who is going to be punished?
this chapter ends and Benazir Bhutto's murder on 27-12-2007 remains a mystery.
this report looks like tailor made report which blames everyone and yet nobody to point to.

[umarabbas]

I do agree to all the points discussed above....blaming Taliban is becoming a Cliche'..during the past few years we have had so many unfortunate incidents in our country that are still being investigated upon. No matter what the interior ministry claims about the reports on such incidents, the report never see the light of the day...

i have very strong objections with this whole UN scenario:

A) when the crime scene is washed away, there is none or little that can be investigated further. The report will be/seems to be based upon the statements of the different stage actors of that time.

B) the government needs to conduct the investigation within Pakistan and by Pakistani officials. If the government is not doing so, then what right does it have to rule this country when it cannot ensure an impartial investigation of an assassination of a Lady that was loved by millions. Even The culprits apprehended for this particular case have pleaded not guilty (as per my knowledge).

Although i am not a staunch support of "Conspiracy Theories" but in Mohtarama's case, this feat could not have been accomplished in the absence of both national and international agents. This particular case has similarities with the famous Al-Harriri assasination....

As far as the fact about the report being "Tailor Made", i have one point to add...what don't we have tailor made in Pakistan? The condolonces from our government officials on blasts and calamities are tailor made, the statements about power crisis are tailor made....and what not....It's no surprise to me...

regarding the pace of the investigation and the way it was handled, i would rather suggest that the case be closed with an FIR registered against "Chand Namaloom Afraad", as is usually the case in Pakistan...!!!