Benazir Bhutto assassination probe complete: Malik

NAUDERO - The investigations into former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination have been completed, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.

“The investigation report is with the joint investigation team and it will be presented in the next meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the party,” the Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying.

He said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was totally independent and working in a transparent manner.

Last week, the FIA had obtained six days’ physical custody of Saud Aziz and former SP Khurram Shahzad, who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder case. The FIA is seeking to recover the cellphones the duo were using on the day Bhutto was murdered in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh.

Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali had told reporters that Aziz and Shahzad had informed the investigators that four officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) had been in contact with them.

As part of the investigation, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry had also sent a questionnaire to former president Pervez Musharraf to record his statement.

“We have sent the questionnaire to General (retd) Musharraf and are waiting for his reply,” Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, who is representing Federal Investigation Agency’s joint investigation team, was quoted as saying.

Interior ministry sources revealed that the document contained questions relating to the security lapse, and asked the former president why he did not provide adequate security to Bhutto, even though she had expressed fears over threats to her life. (ANI)