BY RAUF KALARSA


ISLAMABAD: A fresh probe has uncovered the role of nine men, including an army brigadier, in the December 27, 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The assassination plot was hatched in the official residence of the army brigadier mentioned in the investigation report.

The findings of the probe, conducted under the interior ministry’s supervision, have deliberately been kept under wraps — even from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s leading lights. The report is in the possession of Interior Minister Rehman Malik and has only been seen by President Asif Ali Zardari in its entirety.

Earlier this week, President Zardari temporarily shelved plans to share the contents of the inquiry report. The president was keen to first take the army leadership into confidence before ordering the arrest of certain uniformed personnel over their alleged involvement in Benazir’s assassination.

Five of the nine co-conspirators are still alive, according to the inquiry report. They were the ones who hired the killers and gave them shelter and logistical support. The five men will now be formally charged-sheeted and put on trial. The remaining four men, including those sent to kill Benazir, are already dead.

Both logistical support and rehearsals for the murder were arranged by uniformed persons, who were part of the plot. Militant groups, which were working closely with the nine plotters, provided the manpower.

It has also been confirmed to The Express Tribune that the joint investigation team had traced two new mobile phone sims that were used to communicate on the day Benazir was assassinated.

Sources said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had drawn up a tough questionnaire for General Pervez Musharraf on the basis of investigations conducted by the joint investigation team. The questions were framed once the role of the nine plotters became clear and the inquiry team managed to lay its hands on the main accused who was part of the plot to eliminate Benazir.

Sources said that Zardari was still undecided on how to handle the more explosive contents of the inquiry report. They claimed that President Zardari had deliberately withheld presentation of the inquiry report before the PPP central executive committee in Naudero.

Although Zardari had agreed in principle to make the report public, he wanted to give it some more thought. The president and his party leaders are keen to fight off the somewhat popular impression that they are disinterested in tracking down Benazir’s killers.

At one stage, President Zardari had made up his mind to unveil the inquiry report on Benazir’s third death anniversary, sources said. But he changed his mind at the eleventh hour and told the interior minister to drop the idea for the time being. The absence of Bilawal Bhutto from the CEC meeting was only used as a pretext to delay the presentation of the report. The president did not want the present army leadership to be caught off guard when the names of certain uniformed persons feature in the report.

For their part, the military leadership signalled their willingness to cooperate with the civilian government and put any accused military officer on trial, sources said. Even when a cabinet inquiry team led by Rauf Chaudhry was constituted, the military leadership had backed the initiative to an extent that the director general of Military Intelligence, Nadeem Ejaz, was made available to a three-member inquiry committee.

Sources said that the committee chairman was even told by the top military authorities that a serving lieutenant general would be available round the clock for as many days as they need for questioning, till they reached any conclusion about his innocence or guilt.

The interior minister refused to comment on the inquiry report on the pretext that the matter was in a court of law. When asked whether he intended to share the findings of the probe with the PPP’s CEC members, the minister said he would definitely place the inquiry report before his party’s elders.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2010.

Thank you for sharing, a brigadier made it possible? Who asked him to assasinate national leader of international repute? Who funded that team? Obviously brigadier is not stupid to plan this for own taste, he must have got instructions from some powerful lobby, whether political or establishment, I don't see foreign hand in this.

Now BB has gone but killers should be hanged in front of public so next time no one can dare to think of such henious crime, national consensus is required obviously from all the corners.

Regards,

__________________
'Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius!

Is brigadier Imtiaz invloved?

__________________
When you try, you risk failure. When you don’t try, you ensure it.

I don't think Brig (R) Imtiaz is that much powerful and favorite of estbalishment, he lost his name because he was good supporter of Nawaz, while i suspect Brig (R) Aijaz Shah, notorious person, ex-IB chief and ex-ISI officer. He was serving official during the murder of BB and then resigned in march 08.

Regards,

__________________
'Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius!

SP Ashfaq Anwer’s statement confirms ISI’s role in Benazir Bhutto’s murder –

by Kamran Shafi.

IT is one of the best pieces of news this year, yes, even more than the Supreme Court’s (SC) sagaciously and correctly signalling that parliament could legislate amendments to the constitution by not throwing the 18th Amendment or even a part of it out of court.

The news is that SP Ashfaq Anwar who had been deployed to provide security to the late and much lamented Benazir Bhutto has turned approver against other senior policemen suspected of having a hand, if not in her cold-blooded and horrific murder, at least in its criminal cover-up. SP Ashfaq has reportedly denied this impression.

The most damning of all is his allegation that, as we thought, it was none other than a senior police officer who gave the orders to hose down the scene of the crime almost immediately after the assassination, obliterating any and all forensic evidence that might have been collected from there as should have happened, and as does happen when the target(s) are not high-profile political leaders who are on the wrong side of the Deep State.

Cases in point: the suicide hit on the good and well-spoken of surgeon general of the army on The Mall in Rawalpindi when the road was closed off for a whole day, the hit on the bus carrying ISI personnel in Westridge when that road was closed off for several days; even when lawyers were hit by a blast in GPO chowk, Lahore.

The second most shocking revelation in his statement is that a plain SHO stood in the way of an autopsy on poor Benazir.

We are Pakistanis who have lived and grown old in this country — can we ever believe that a lowly inspector of police could on his own prevent the autopsy of as powerful a political leader as Benazir Bhutto? Or that a senior superintendent of police could order the hosing down the scene of the crime all on his own? No sirs, no!

Both the orders had to come from the very top because the people at the top apparently knew well that it was no suicide bomber whose detonation of his charge made Benazir fall down into the jeep and hit her head on the sun-roof lever so hard that her brains oozed out.

They knew that it was the pistol shooter, plainly visible in video-film record of the murder, who shot her in the upper left side of her neck, the bullet exiting from the right side of her head. I am sorry for being so graphic, reader, but what do you do other than kick the Deep State in the teeth when it not only is at least an accessory to a crime of this proportion, but takes us lay citizens for so many fools?

As an aside, how many of us remember Brigadier Cheema (I think his name was), trying to sell the theory of the lever at a press conference after being briefed by none other than a director of the Mother of All Agencies as he himself later admitted?

The man’s mouth was dry; he was groping for words; his hands were shaking, and he generally looked as if he had seen several ghosts a mere minute ago. What a sorry and shameful performance that was, by a hanger-on of a sorry and shameless dictatorship.

Why, you might ask, is it that I say that this is even better news than the SC judgment? Because, friends, far too many of Pakistan’s political leaders have been done to violent death without the perpetrators ever coming to justice. Start from Liaquat Ali Khan, go to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then to Benazir, and you will see the dark and dirty hands of the Deep State behind every one of those awful assassinations.

One hopes that the deposition of SP Anwar will be acted upon and that the case will reach a conclusion in a court of law, in which everyone even remotely connected with the case, no matter what their station at the time of the killing of that brave woman, will be questioned and if remotely suspect will be proceeded against. This country has seen enough bloody interventions by those that would not let democracy grow and prosper.

Source: Dawn

__________________
When you try, you risk failure. When you don’t try, you ensure it.

bro u kno wt, ths ghost establishment is the most powerful, it has nvr wanted any othr person except them to be most powerful. whn they saw liaquat khan was rising like a national hero gathering power n upper hand, they killed him; when they saw bhutto was holding their necks they hanged him; when they saw murtaza bhutto cud be threat if he had joined BB, they killed the brave man in middle of karachi; when they saw there is no way to stop BB's magic they tried two times n killed her at last...
beliv me bro, if zardari or anybdy else will try to hold their necks, he will surely be no more on the map of ths globe... ths ghost establishment is the most wicked n cruel of all, they think they're the real inheritors of british rule so they only hv right to rule n b the most powerful..
Mark my words, BBs killers will nvr be exposed, nt untill at least the map of the country changes n power gts divided..