Benazir reiterates call for US, UK role in probe

[Waqar Abro]

By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Friday formally requested the government to seek assistance from the US and the UK in carrying out investigations in the Oct 18 bomb attack on her rally in Karachi.

“The PPP asks you to immediately assist the poorly-equipped Pakistan police investigation with sophisticated technology and scientific techniques available to Scotland Yard and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) to assist in the investigation and bring the culprits to book,” Ms Bhutto wrote in a letter sent to the federal interior secretary. She forwarded copies of the letter to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Chief Justice Sindh High Court Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad.

In her letter, the text of which was released to the media, Ms Bhutto said the UNSC on October 22 in a unanimous resolution had spoken of the need to “bring the perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the reprehensible act of terrorism to justice,” and urged all states to cooperate actively with Pakistani authorities.

Ms Bhutto said the Home Office, Sindh, had been sending her letters making her feel more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. She said that instead of relaxing the ban on tinted glasses and ban on display of public weapons, they had asked her to travel in transparent windows and asked her not to protect herself in public with privately-armed guards. She called upon the government to review such decisions.

Highlighting the threats, she wrote that terrorists and their hidden supporters had sent a warning letter to her on Oct 23 and threatened to slaughter her counsel Farooq Naek and herself like goats.

Reminding the government that the deaths of former premier Liaquat Ali Khan, former president Gen Ziaul Haq, former army chief Gen Asif Nawaz and her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto had not been resolved allegedly due to poor investigation techniques, Ms Bhutto said terrorists had been emboldened by the Pakistani investigators who lacked scientific and forensic means to crack the case.

Similarly, she said, several terrorist attacks, including the Islamabad bomb attack on the party’s camp in July, Sunni Tehrik leaders in Nishtar Park, suicide attack at Aabpara Market in Islamabad and killing of people in Karachi on May 12 during the chief justice’s visit had remained unsolved.

Regards,
ABRO