Pakistan Views

Scotland Yard team members on Sunday arranged a demonstration of the vehicle on their own to assess the actual situation under which, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was attacked.

The team visited Liaqat Bagh, the place of incident for three times on Sunday and made video footage and photographs of the venue of the public rally, the place where the PPP chairperson was attacked. The team, through vehicle’s demonstration, worked out to assess the situation, and the distance between the vehicle and the attackers.

Later, the Scotland Yard team went to Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) where Benazir Bhutto was shifted after the incident. According to the hospital sources, the team members called on Dr Habib Ahmed, Medical Superintendent of RGH, who briefed them about situation under which PPP chairperson was brought to the hospital.

The team members asked the MS about the condition of the Benazir Bhutto at that time. The MS informed that when they examined her there was no sign of heartbeat and breathing.

The team went back to Liaquat Bagh and stayed for some time there. Then, they proceeded to District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) where in the mortuary, they examined the parts of an unidentified body, the victims of bomb blast and made their video footage.Later, the team members arrived at Liaqat Bagh, where they stayed for some time and then proceeded to Islamabad.

Almost half of all Pakistanis believe that government-allied agencies or politicians were responsible for the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto, according to a survey released on Saturday.

Meanwhile, more than half backed martyred Benazir’s teenage son Bilawal as the right person to succeed the martyred opposition leader as the new chief of her party, the poll by Gallup Pakistan said.

The survey said 23 percent of people suspected government intelligence or security agencies of being responsible for Bhutto’s martyring, and a further 25 percent believed government-allied politicians were to blame.

Only 17 percent of Pakistanis believed the government’s official account that al Qaeda militants were to blame.

Martyred Benazir herself accused several senior government and intelligence officials of plotting to martyr her following a double suicide attack on a parade to welcome her home from exile in October.

Twelve percent suspected the United States, which counts President Pervez Musharraf as a key ally in the “war on terror”, and four percent blamed Pakistan’s regional rival India.

On martyred Benazir’s succession, 53 percent of those questioned said her Pakistan People’s Party had made the right decision to choose Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, her 19-year-old son, as its new co-chairman.

A further 28 percent said it was wrong and 19 percent said they did not know.

Gallup Pakistan said it interviewed 1,300 men and women in towns and cities across Pakistan and the poll carried a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

President Pervez Musharraf, in a US magazine interview, called for the body of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to be exhumed as he rejected charges that the government was complicit in her assassination. In a wide-ranging interview with a US magazine, Musharraf also expressed his refusal to let the United States launch CIA operations against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Pakistan has been in turmoil since Bhutto’s assassination on December 27 and her Pakistan People’s Party has challenged the government’s reports on her death. No autopsy was ever conducted. While her party insists she was struck by a gunman’s bullet before a suicide bomber blew himself up, the government says she was killed when her head hit her car’s sunroof as she waved to supporters after a campaign rally. Musharraf said Bhutto’s body should be exhumed to determine once and for all whether she was killed by a bullet. “Yes, exhume it. A hundred percent. I would like it to be exhumed,” he told Newsweek from Rawalpindi. But he ruled out ordering a post-mortem without the agreement of Bhutto’s family. Asked why he should not use his executive power to order one, he said: “Everything is not black and white here. It would have very big political ramifications. If I just ordered the body exhumed, that would be careless, unless (Bhutto’s) people agreed. But they will not.” He said Bhutto’s supporters have not agreed to a post-mortem “because they know it’s a fact there is nothing wrong.” “Everybody is trying to gain political advantage; the entire opposition is trying to take political advantage,” he said. The Pakistani government has offered to exhume her body and conduct an autopsy, but Bhutto’s family says it will only agree if Musharraf allows a UN-led inquiry into the murder, which he has ruled out. “There cannot be a UN investigation,” Musharraf told Newsweek. “There are not two or three countries involved. Why should there be a UN investigation? This is ridiculous.” Musharraf was also asked in the interview about reports that the United States is thinking about launching CIA operations in Pakistan with or without Pakistan’s approval. “We are totally in cooperation on the intelligence side,” he said. “But we are totally against (a military operation). We are a sovereign country. We will ask for assistance from outsiders. They won’t impose their will on us.”

The Scotland Yard investigation team is here to determine the cause of Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom, said a working arrangements agreement released by Interior Ministry here on Saturday. The agreement was finalized between the Pakistani law enforcement agencies and the Metropolitan Police Service team of Scotland Yard. According to the agreement, At the request of the Pakistan government, New Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command (SO-15) is deploying a team of investigation to support the Pakistan law enforcement agencies responsible for investigating the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. The principal purpose of the SO-15 deployment is to assist the local authorities in providing clarity regarding the precise cause of Benazir martyrdom. The team will provide forensic expertise and other investigative assistance as appears appropriate to the senior officer Detective Superintendent MacBrayne who will lead the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) team. The MPS officers will assist and report to the Pakistan senior investigators. The primacy and responsibility for the investigation remains with the Pakistan authorities, it said adding the MPS team will consist of experts in the areas of crime scene investigation, forensics, and evidence analysis.

President Pervez Musharraf has told a German news magazine in an interview made public on Saturday that he would resign if a majority of Pakistan’s people no longer wanted him. He also told Der Spiegel somebody should have stopped opposition leader Benazir Bhutto standing up in her car into the line of fire on the day last month when she was assassinated. “After the events of the past seven or eight months, resignation would have been the easiest option. I enjoy playing golf, bridge and tennis and would have more time for my friends. I like to relax,” he said. “Believe me, on the day when I arrive at the conviction that the majority of the people don’t want me any more, when I believe I can no longer make a contribution to my country, I will not hesitate a second. I will go,” he said. Der Spiegel interviewed him in English but only released a German version in advance of Monday publication. The translation back into English is by the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Asked about the Bhutto assassination, he said, “She was warned, but she ignored it. Three weeks before her death, I prohibited her from holding a rally on the busiest space in Rawalpindi…” “Her arrival and her speech itself were secure. Her walk to the car also went off without any problem. But what happened then? Everyone else in the car survived uninjured. She was the only one that stood up. Somebody should have stopped her.” He rejected calls from the Bhutto family for a UN inquiry, saying, “What has the United Nations got to do with it? This is a murder. “If we have gaps in forensic technology, then we engage Scotland Yard. But you should not underestimate the capabilities of a nuclear state, a country that has 160 million people and a very well organised military as well as an intelligence service.” He also rejected allegations that Islamabad might have plotted against her, saying, “She was always accusing people without proof. So why should I have to prove my innocence?” He promised the February 18 elections would be conducted by the rules and said international monitors had been invited to observe, but rejected demands for western-style democratic customs. “You have to understand. Pakistan is not Germany. We are a developing country. Give us time and don’t force your own models of democracy on us,” he said. Musharraf said of US President George W Bush as the end of his presidency approaches, “I’ll miss him a lot. He is a friend, a man who means what he says and speaks openly.” But he added, “Obviously personal relationships do count in politics, but ultimately it is national interests that predominate.”

President Pervez Musharraf ruled out a UN inquiry into the martyrdom 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 published on its website 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 al-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 Bhutto’s martyrdom, 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.”

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,” he said.

“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.

Scotland Yard team, which is on a mission here to probe the murder of Benazir Bhutto, called on President Pervez Musharraf.

Islamabad British High Commissioner, Robert Brinklay accompanying the Scotland Yard team introduced them to the President Pervez Musharraf.

Sources told that the probe relating to the deadly attack on Benazir Bhutto and its various aspects came under discussion in the meeting, while the President Pervez Musharraf assured full support to the British probe team in their process of investigations.

Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has slammed President Pervez Musharraf for saying Benazir Bhutto (chairperson of PPP) was to blame for her own martyrdom by poking her head out of her car sunroof.

Asif Ali Zardari also told AFP that Musharraf’s admission that a bullet may have martyred her — not a blow to the head from the sunroof lever as officials previously said — showed the authorities had “something to hide”.

“I think he is trying to shift responsibility, to say the least,” Zardari, 51, husband of Benazir Bhutto and currently serving as the co-chairman of PPP said in an interview late on Monday at the Benazir family’s ancestral home in Naudero.

“She’s on record of having written to him asking permission for international assistance and security which they denied her,” said Zardari, who has called for a UN probe into his wife’s death.

Zardari’s comments intensified the rancour between President Musharraf and PPP, ahead of February 18 elections.

President Musharraf told US television network CBS that Benazir was at fault for putting her upper body outside the sunroof to greet supporters at an election rally on December 27, moments before she was martyred in a gun and suicide attack.

“I think it was she to blame alone. Nobody else. Responsibility is hers,” he said.

Asked if he felt insulted by President Musharraf’s comments, Zardari added: “It’s a total insult to the cause of democracy that he could not save the one person that could keep Pakistan together.”

Speaking in a plush sitting room filled with photographs of Benazir, after meeting more mourners at the house, Zardari was also scathing about Musharraf’s admission to CBS that a bullet may have caused the fatal injury.

“They have changed stories four times… Why do you think you change stories? Because you have something to hide,” said Zardari.

He dismissed Musharraf’s claims that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network was behind the attack.

“Al Qaeda are not standing against us at the election and moreover they have also denied it. Why should we believe (the government) and not them?”

But he said that if elected, the PPP would continue the former premier’s pro-Western outlook and strong stance against extremism — adding that he would welcome more US assistance.

The Pakistan army on Sunday reacted angrily to a New York Times report that the White House was considering approving military operations inside Pakistan to target Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

“The Americans are already in the Pakistani territory, we are only trying to mince words by saying they are not,” Zardari said.

Benazir “in her wisdom talked that Pakistan needs more help, that nothing is being done… and that Talibanisation is going from bad to worse,” he said.

Zardari said the PPP was well prepared for the elections, which have been postponed from January 8 to February 18 because of violence sparked by Benazir’s martyred, but claimed they had already been “heavily rigged.”

He also rejected suggestions that corruption allegations against him from Benazir’s two terms in power could be an electoral liability.

He is widely known in Pakistan as “Mr Ten Percent” due to the claims about kickbacks. He served eight years in jail from 1996 to 2004 on charges that were eventually dropped and which he says were politically motivated.

“The allegations against me have been regurgitated now because they were used as a tool from the start,” he said.

Looking tired after travelling to see his son off to a new term at Britain’s Oxford University, Zardari admitted he had fears for Bilawal’s safety but said he had to honour his wife’s last wishes.

Zardari said he was named as the new chairman in her will but the party “applauded me that I was willing to take the risk” to make Bilawal co-leader in order to keep a Bhutto at its head.

“Remember two of our chairmen have been martyred,” he said, referring to Bhutto and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979.

“I could have easily taken my children and said ‘thank you, goodbye, I want nothing to do with this, they have hurt our family enough’ but because it was her will to tie me to this chair I did not,” he said.

He said Bilawal was coping well despite his mother’s death.

“Bilawal is definitely made out of better DNA than I am,” he said.

“But you can imagine it’s a huge, huge, huge tragedy. It’s not that she was just a mother, mother is one sentiment, but she was so much larger than life.”

The team of investigators from Scotland Yard inspected the site of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, as the probe in to the December 27th Liaquat Bagh attack gets underway.

The investigators held a meeting with the Rawalpindi Police today, and re-examined B-B’s bullet proof vehicle at Civil Lines Police Station. They also visited the Rawalpindi General Hospital and talked to the two doctors who operated on Ms Bhutto.

Earlier at Liaqat Bagh, the team inspected the shrapnel and pellet marks on the walls, caused by the suicide bombing and tried to reconstruct the crime scene.

The five-member Scotland Yard team says it will share information with the Pakistan Government, the British High Commission and the Commonwealth.

The team will again pay a visit to the hospital on Tuesday and hold meetings with doctors comprising the medical board.

The Scotland Yard investigators on Sunday visited the police line to re-examine the vehicle, in which former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed, while leaving Liaquat Bagh after addressing an election rally on December 27.

This was the second visit of David Keith led Scotland Yard detectives since the team began investigations into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The Scotland Yard investigators reached the Rawalpindi Police Line No 1 on Sunday under tight security arrangements, as they were welcomed by Punjab Additional Inspector General of Police Chaudhry Abdul Majid and Rawalpindi DIG Syed Saud Aziz, SSP (operations) Yasin Farooq, Rawal Town SP Khurram Shahzad, SPs Waqar Chohan, Tahir Ayub and ASP Rana Shahid.

The re-examination of the vehicle was conducted by the team after watching the demonstration by the local police regarding stopping of vehicle before the attack at the spot, where PPP leader was killed and also in perspectives of the video and photographs taken by the investigators from the top a building overlooking Liaquat Bagh during their visit to Liaquat Bagh on Saturday.

The team re-examined the vehicle and took more photographs of the vehicle from different aspects and angles.

It watched the footage of former premier Benazir Bhutto three times, in which she can be seen while leaving the stage after addressing the rally, getting on the vehicle, standing after opening the sunroof and thereafter gunfire assault on her.

The international detectives also asked various questions from the police officials concerned, which could be helpful in the ongoing investigation.

They recorded the statement of SSP (operation) Yasin Farooq and four-member investigating team and the Punjab government also provided some evidences to the Scotland Yard team in this regard.

Sources said the team re-examined the vehicle, while watching the video three times on a big TV screen, kept beside the affected vehicle in the Police Line in which footage of the slain former premier was shown, while boarding on the vehicle, opening and coming out of the sunroof and gun firing.

The evidences and statements being recorded by the international detectives to move into further investigations and assess the actual situation.