Pakistan Views

Officials said on Sunday a second suspect had been arrested in connection with a plot to martyr former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Security officials said the man had been detained along with a teenager — 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah — whose arrest was announced earlier, and both were being questioned by investigators.

They were arrested in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan on Friday while allegedly planning a suicide bombing over the Muslim festival of Ashura, the security officials said.

Shah told interrogators he had been part of a back-up team of three bombers who were tasked with martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto if the original December 27 attack by two men had failed, the officials who requested anonymity added.

Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah confirmed on Sunday that the arrests — the first in connection with Benazir’s martyrdom — had been made and investigations were continuing.

“Yes they were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan and they are being investigated,” Shah told AFP.

“We are looking into all aspects and we are not saying anything unless it is corroborated through investigations,” Shah said when asked if both had given some clues about Benazir’s martyrdom.

Benazir was martyred in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Rawalpindi. Government and the CIA have blamed al Qaeda and tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud for her death.

One of the security officials said Aitezaz Shah was arrested during a security check when he arrived in Dera Ismail Khan by taxi from the North Waziristan tribal area, which borders Afghanistan.

He allegedly told officials that he came to collect a suicide jacket for an attack at the US consulate in Karachi but the programme was changed because of tight security for Ashura, which was celebrated on Sunday.

Instead he was ordered to launch an attack during an Ashura procession by the minority Shia sect, the officials said.

A spokesman for Taliban militants in Pakistan rejected the allegations, saying that the boy arrested in Dera Ismail Khan had no link with the group.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday sent an appeal to the United Nations requesting it investigate her murder and expressing no confidence in the ability of the Pakistani agencies investigating the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto.

The party has also expressed its dissatisfaction over the involvement of Scotland Yard detectives in the ongoing probe, saying their mandate did not allow them to investigate who was behind the martyrdom.