Posts Tagged ‘Benazir’

Pakistan should not be compared to Lebanon

President Pervez Musharraf ruled out a UN inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as demanded by her party, saying that Pakistan should not be compared to Lebanon.

‘It is not possible. Is another country involved?’ he said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper on Friday. ‘Pakistan is not Lebanon.’

PPP has called for a UN inquiry into her death comparable to one into the 2005 killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose death was blamed by many Lebanese on Syria. Damascus denies involvement.

Musharraf said Pakistan had its own institutions to manage the inquiry into Benazir’s assassination, and noted they would also be helped by British police.

He said there was a campaign by al Qaeda to undermine Pakistan but denied his country was about to fall apart.

“They do not have the capacity to destabilize the country, but their suicide attacks create disorder and dishearten the population. However Pakistan is not on the verge of disintegration.”- President Musharraf.

He also said Pakistan’s economy would survive if the United States decided to cut financial aid as suggested by some politicians unless Pakistan does more to fight terrorism and restores full civil rights.

“Do you think Pakistan would die if it didn’t receive this money? Our economy is doing well.” - President Musharraf.

“Over the last 6 years, we have received a total of around $9 billion. More than half for fighting terrorism … If the Americans don’t want to pay any more, they should ask other people to help them. But the fight against terrorism would suffer,” Musharraf said.

Who were the people behind the killing of Benazir?

The death of Benazir has raised a lot of questions which need to be answered. Government has also been critised but does really the government alone needs to be critisised? Here are some questions which need to be answered. (more…)

Scotland Yard team visited the hospitals

The Scotland Yard team visited Combined Military Hospital and District Hospital Rawalpindi on Monday and they interviewed the people who got hurt in the explosion after the rally. More than fifty people got hurt where as around twenty people including Benazir Bhutto died in the deadly explosion planned for her assassination.

The Scodland Yard team was headed by David Keth. The team visited District Hospital later and met Medical Superintendent Khalid Malik, inquiring about the post mortum reports of the people who died in this event. None of the deadbodies were thoroughly examined and were handed over to their relatives after some basic observations.

They also visited the mortury where they examined and took photos of the incomplete face, hand and leg of the supposed suicide killer. They haven’t yet met the doctors who gave the first aid to Benazir Bhutto when she was brought to the hospital by her aides.

British detectives inspection at Liaquat Bagh

The Scotland Yard’s investigators inspected the Liaquat Bagh public park where Benazir was assassinated as she left a campaign rally on December 27.

“The Scotland Yard team is examining the venue where she addressed a rally and the site where she was attacked” - Rawalpindi police official

(more…)

Presidents point of view regarding Benazir’s assassination

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said that assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto ignored warnings from the government.

“She was informed of the threat to her, the first time about three to four weeks back when she wanted to the same place, The intelligence agencies knew there was a threat and we told her not to go…
So therefore she went on her own volition, ignoring the threat.”
- President Musharraf

He also showed his dissatisfaction regarding the investigation into her death, and responding to question related to the conspiracy theories that blame Musharraf’s government for helping Bhutto’s assassination he said :

“Frankly, I consider the question below my dignity to answer, but however I would like to answer it. I’m not a feudal and I’m not a tribal — I have been brought up in a very educated and civilized family which believes in values, which believes in principles, which believes in character.

“My family, by any imagination, is not a family which believes in killing people, assassinating, intriguing. And that is all there I want to say.”-President Musharraf

Liaqat Bagh is a park in Rawalpindi for political gatherings and is named after the Pakistan’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was assassinated in 1951.

President Musharraf, while detailing the security provided to Benazir Bhutto in Liaquat Bagh, where she was killed on 27 December 2007, said that more than 1,000 police were patrolling the park where Bhutto’s convoy passed last Thursday, and government snipers patrolled each building’s rooftop. Bhutto was traveling in a bulletproof vehicle, and had handpicked the head of her security detail.

Musharraf also pointed out that no one else in the vehicle was injured when gunshots rang out, followed by suicide blast that killed nearly two dozen people in the crowd.

“Nobody gets hurt (inside the car), only she when she … decides to rise above the sunroof,”-President Musharraf

“Anyone who wants to assassinate or do anything of this kind must weigh pros and cons, Would I … be the maximum gainer or is there somebody else here who could gain more? So this is another element that I leave to your judgment.”
-President Musharraf

He expressed his dissatisfaction with the way investigators immediately cleaned the area and thus possibly destroying some forensic evidence :

“It’s unnecessary. It shouldn’t have been done, But if you are meaning that they did it by design to hide evidence — no

It is just inefficiency … on the part of these people who think that things have to be cleared and the road has to be cleared and traffic has to go through.”

“But certainly I’m sure that they didn’t do it with an intention of hiding some secrets or that the intelligence agencies … had instructed them to hide this. No, I don’t believe that.”
-President Musharraf

Benazir Bhutto knew her assassins

“Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death [..] Don’t feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers” , said Nawaz Sharif to the supporters of Benazir Bhutto after her assassination on 27th December 2007.

The assassination of opposition political leaders and activists has always been the practice of tyrants, dictators and imperialist occupiers. Israel has long practiced such assassinations with the complicity of the United States. (more…)