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Musharraf: Bhutto death not our fault
2008-01-03
President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday denied accusations that the military or intelligence services were involved in the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Speaking at a news conference a week after Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack, Musharraf said he was not "fully satisfied" with his government's own inquiry, and had invited British investigators to assist the probe to dispel any suspicions about official involvement in her assassination. "We don't mind going to any extent, as nobody is involved from the government or agency side," he said. He also denied there had been a security lapse and implied that Bhutto, who was greeting supporters through the sunroof of her armored vehicle at the time of the attack, was partly responsible. "Who is to be blamed for her coming out (of) her vehicle?" he asked. He pointed out that others in the vehicle had not been hurt in the attack. Musharraf conceded there were shortcomings in Pakistan's handling of the case, including the hosing down of the bomb site hours after the attack, widely seen as undermining a detailed forensic examination. But he dismissed any suggestion there was a plan to conceal evidence. "I'm not fully satisfied. I will accept that: cleaning the area. Why did they do that? If you are meaning they did that by design I would not say no. It's just inefficiency, people thinking things have to be cleared, traffic has to go through," he said.
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