DarkTimes - 24Hr Global News Blog

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Thursday said there was no government involvement in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto but admitted he was unsatisfied with the probe into her death.
For the first time since Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide attack that his government blamed on Al-Qaeda, he acknowledged reports that the crime scene had been quickly hosed down, possibly destroying evidence, after her murder.
One week after the popular opposition leader was killed at a campaign rally, and just a day after he said Scotland Yard would send investigators to help, Musharraf conceded he was "not fully satisfied" with the probe so far.
"I am sure that they did not do it with an intention of hiding some secrets or that the intelligence agencies instructed them to hide secrets," Musharraf told reporters summoned to the presidential palace for a news conference.
"It is just inefficiency on the part of these people who think things have to be cleared and the road has to be cleared and traffic has to go through," he said.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has ridiculed the government account of her death, which said that the shooter had missed her and that she had died fracturing her skull by smashing her head against her vehicle's sunroof.
"One should not give a statement that's 100 percent final and that is a flaw that we suffer from," Musharraf said, referring to previous interior ministry statements about how Bhutto died.
The PPP demanded a UN investigation, something government officials have ruled out, but Musharraf announced Wednesday, in his first major address to the nation since Bhutto's death, that a Scotland Yard team was on the way.
Many Bhutto supporters have angrily blamed the president for her death -- if only for failing to provide adequate security after Bhutto survived Pakistan's worst-ever terror attack in October, which left scores dead.
Asked if he had "blood on his hands," Musharraf said the question was "below my dignity" but that he wanted to give a public answer in any case.
"My family by any imagination is not a family which believes in killing people, assassinating, intriguing," he said. "That is all that I want to say."
The postponement of January 8 polls until February 18 has been criticised as a ploy by Musharraf loyalists in the government to rob the PPP of any sympathy vote it may have won in the aftermath of Bhutto's slaying.
The PPP, the country's largest party, has alleged the delay is an attempt to give Musharraf's allies time to fix the result.
However, he denied that the poll would be tainted.
"You will see that there is no possibility of rigging," the president said.
Pakistan's opposition parties meanwhile demanded better security Thursday as they prepared for a lengthy election campaign.
They confirmed they would resume the race to restore democracy here but said the government must ensure candidates are protected from the dangers posed by anyone determined to disrupt the polls.
"We would like the government to provide foolproof security to Sharif, including a bulletproof vehicle," said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party of two-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
"We will continue our election campaign but we are revising the party chief's programme of public engagements in view of the current security situation."
Pakistan's government had provided Bhutto with a bulletproof vehicle and police security but many of her supporters blame Musharraf for failing to stop the gun and suicide-bomb attack which killed her last Thursday in Rawalpindi.
Her October 18 homecoming from self-imposed exile saw 139 people killed in a twin suicide bombing on her convoy in Karachi.
Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for the PPP, said Bhutto's widower and the party's de facto new leader, Asif Ali Zardari, would lead the campaign for the February 18 polls after its mourning period ended early next month.

The Pakistani Government today published a picture of what it said was the severed head of the suicide bomber who killed Benazir Bhutto and offered a reward of almost £83,000 to anyone able to identify him.

Amid growing criticism of the police investigation into the opposition leader's killing, two pictures featuring men believed to be involved in the Rawalpindi shooting and suicide bombing were published today in Jang, the country's biggest-selling Urdu-language daily.

As well as an image of the severed head of a clean-shaven man who police suspect to be the bomber, another image - taken in the minutes before the blast - shows a young man wearing sunglasses and a dark waistcoat staring at the camera with a man wrapped in a white shawl standing directly behind him.

Alongside the pictures, the Government published a statement saying: "The people’s co-operation is being sought in this tragic incident and a picture of the criminals is being released."
It offered a reward of 10 million rupees (£82,645) for any information about the men, adding: "The name and address of the informant will be kept secret."

Later, in what appeared a further attempt to silence opposition anger over the conduct of the investigation, President Musharraf reversed the Pakistani Government's previous position and announced that he had requested foreign police help, with Scotland Yard sending out a team of officers by the end of the week.

The moves came amid huge tension between President Musharraf and his political opponents over the investigation into Ms Bhutto's killing.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), now headed by her widower, disputes Government claims that she died after cracking her head on the her car sunroof handle, pointing to a number of video and photographic images showing that she was shot as she waved to crowds before a suicide bomber blew himself up in the seconds afterwards.

Offers of assistance in the investigation have so far come from the United States, Britain and France.

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) announced Wednesday that it had not decided on what choices it would make on the postponement of parliamentary elections.

Addressing a news conference, newly-elected Co-Chairman of the PPP Asif Ali Zardari said that his party had to consult with other political parties on elections postponement.

Some local media quoted party sources as saying that the PPP would still contest the elections despite the postponement.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Wednesday that the polling date, which was originally set on Jan. 8, would be postponed till Feb. 18.

Zardari earlier said that any delay of the elections would be unacceptable to the PPP.

President Pervez Musharraf said at a televised address that the ECP was forced to come to its decision because of the damage incurred in riots following Bhutto's assassination.

Musharraf also disclosed that the government had invited a Scotland Yard forensic team to help probe Bhutto's assassination.

Zardari questioned why the Scotland Yard was not invited when Bhutto was attacked in Karachi on Oct. 19. Twin suicide bombing attacks hit Bhutto's procession, killing more than 140 people and injuring hundreds of others.