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British detectives meet with Musharraf
2008-01-08
President Pervez Musharraf told British forensic experts Tuesday they would have a free hand in investigating the circumstances surrounding the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a government official said. The promise appeared to be a softening of the government's position on the probe. Last week, Musharraf told reporters the investigators would not be allowed to go on a "wild goose chase" and investigate claims the government was behind Bhutto's killing in a Dec. 27 shooting and bombing attack. "The president assured (the investigators) of his full support and said that they were totally free to conduct their probe, and no one will interfere in their affairs," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said. Bhutto's killing plunged Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, even deeper into political crisis at a time when it is battling militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban movement. The government blamed the attack on Islamic militants and initially said Bhutto was killed when the force of the blast slammed her head into a lever on the sunroof of her car. The opposition blamed elements of the ruling party and said she was killed by gunfire. Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, told reporters in London that only a U.N. investigation into her death would satisfy him. "We do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistani government has the necessary transparency," said the 19-year-old, who was chosen chairman of his mother's party after her death. "Already so much forensic evidence has been destroyed." Hours after the attack on Bhutto, firefighters with high-pressure hoses washed down the scene, a move that Musharraf has since called a mistake. In an effort to blunt the growing calls for an international probe, Musharraf has invited a six-member team from Scotland Yard's antiterror division to assist local investigators. Upon their arrival last week, the British experts visited the site of the attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to take photographs and record video and speak with local security officers. They have made no comment since their arrival. "The forensic experts and analysts from Scotland Yard are independently and freely conducting their investigation. They are helping Pakistan to determine the motives behind the attack and to help us know the exact cause of Benazir Bhutto's death," Cheema said. "Whenever the team from Scotland Yard reaches any conclusion, we will share it with the people." Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, head of another opposition party and a fierce Musharraf critic, called on the president to resign and reinstate the judges he dismissed during a six-week state of emergency that ended last month. He also called for a national unity government to be formed to run the elections. "If he stays in power then nobody can save the country from complete destruction," he said in the city of Lahore. "They are planning massive rigging in polls and I want to make it clear that this would be disastrous for Pakistan." Also Tuesday, Pakistani intelligence agents arrested a suspected al-Qaida-linked militant and six of his associates in connection with an attack on an air force bus in November that killed eight people and wounded about 40 others, a security official said. The suspect, identified as Ahsanul Haq, a retired army major, was caught in the eastern city of Lahore last month following the Nov. 1 attack in Sargodha, about 125 miles south of the capital, Islamabad, the official said. Haq told security forces the name of the bomber, who belonged to an outlawed militant group, the security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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