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to The Sunday Times

BRITISH officials have revealed that evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al-Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Five experts in video evidence and forensic science have been in Pakistan for 10 days since President Pervez Musharraf took up an offer from Gordon Brown for British help in the investigation of the December 27 killing. Last week they were joined by three specialists in explosives.
Bhutto’s murder as she left a rally she had been addressing in Rawalpindi sparked an international outcry. Her body was flown home to be buried with no postmortem examination. Companions insist the cause of death - a bullet wound in her neck - was obvious.
Claims by the government that she had fractured her skull on the sunroof of her car while escaping the blast from a suicide bomb prompted fury from party supporters who insisted she had been shot before the explosion.
When footage of the incident clearly revealed a man waving a pistol in the crowd, the government was accused of a cover-up.
Musharraf was quick to blame the killing on Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal leader from the Afghan border area of southern Waziristan with links to Al-Qaeda. The interior ministry released a transcript of a purported telephone conversation between Mehsud and a militant cleric in which, though Bhutto’s name was not mentioned, he appeared to congratulate him on the death, saying: “Fantastic job. Very brave boys, the ones who killed her.”
The transcript was met with scepticism. Critics pointed out Mehsud had previously been working with the Pakistan military, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars and that if the country’s intelligence services could tape his conversations, they should be able to capture him.
Last August Mehsud humiliated Musharraf when his men captured more than 250 Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary troops, who surrendered without firing a shot. Mehsud demanded the release of 30 jailed militants and the end of Pakistani military operations in his tribal area as the price for their freedom. To show he meant business, he ordered the beheading of three of his hostages. Musharraf gave in.
“Linking Mehsud to Bhutto’s assassination was done for strategic reasons and had nothing to do with the ground realities,” said Sajjan Gohel, an expert on Al-Qaeda.
“Although Mehsud has ideological sympathies with the Taliban, his influence does not extend beyond the tribal areas and he certainly does not have the resources to plan an attack in the centre of the country like the assassination of Bhutto.”
But British and American officials, who have examined the transcript, say they believe it is genuine and share Musharraf’s view that Mehsud is behind most of the suicide bombings in Pakistan.
Asked why Pakistani forces do not capture Mehsud, one official said: “It’s not so easy to go into tribal areas. Look what happened to the last lot of Pakistani soldiers that tried.” According to diplomats, Mehsud had dispatched teams of suicide bombers round the country to follow Bhutto to rallies and seize an opportunity to kill her.
The gun fired at Bhutto has been checked for fingerprints by the Scotland Yard detectives. A government minister told The Sunday Times that these have been traced through identity cards to a man in Swat, an area where Mehsud’s men have been fighting.
“There was no cover-up,” he insisted. “It was just unfortunate that in all the shock and confusion at the beginning, people shot their mouths off talking about sunroofs rather than simply saying it would be investigated.”
Scotland Yard has insisted that its task is not to establish who killed her but only how she died.
Even that is not straightforward. They cannot examine the body, and the crime scene and Bhutto’s vehicle were both scrubbed within hours.
Every day another conspiracy theory emerges. It is now widely believed that the gun had a laser sight, suggesting military complicity, or that a sniper may have been in a nearby building.
Musharraf met the British detectives last week for a briefing and later said he expected them to have reached a conclusion about how she died before elections scheduled for February 18.
Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has rejected the Scotland Yard inquiry and demanded a wider-ranging United Nations-led investigation that would also look into the bombing of Bhutto’s bus in Karachi in October.
“She was a world leader,” he said. “We don’t just want a sergeant from Scotland Yard determining the angle of fire. She’s dead - that’s the proof. We have the footage, we have the doctors who were trying to rescue her.”
It has never been established who was behind the mysterious plane crash that killed General Zia, Pakistan’s last military dictator in 1988; who murdered Bhutto’s brother Murtaza in a Karachi shootout in 1996; or who killed its first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan, who was shot dead in 1951 yards from where Bhutto died.
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THE BIG GAME has become a maze of countless games;Taliban seems to be one of the small games in the process; A side effect out of order spreading like a virus.
so the culprits for such actions any where in the world should be investigated without any request from anybody and isn't it true that all is known to the players(super powers) so why isn't it published, well the game might be planned!?Viewing the present world situation it seems YOU CAN'T FOOL A FEW PEOPLE even a few times BUT YOU CAN FOOL THE WHOLE WORLD FOR EVER AND FOREVER AND FOREVER.
The one who is capable of doing such invistigations is bound by humanity to invetigate and inform public WHY AND WHO IS DESTROYING THE WORLD PEACE .
JAVED, SWAT,
While there will continue to be alternative theories and claims of motives and conspiracies implicating Musharraf and PML(Q), there are reasons to believe that Taleban-Al-Qaida axis would want to eliminate Benazir from the scene. When Benazir returned to Pakistan earlier, it was widely believed that her return was sponsored by the United States. Her statements later confirmed that she would fully cooperate with the US in all matters including "war on terror", access to A.Q. Khan, allowing US troops to enter the Pakistani territory to fight the Taleban and Al-Qaida etc. These promises of collaboration with US went far beyond anything Musharraf was willing to do for the US. It was a no-brainer for Mehsud and his allies to see Benazir as a threat to them, more so than Musharraf.
Riaz Haq, Saratoga, CA, USA
Dear Lamb,
As you know about Sindh and Sindhi people culture and ethinic taht they are sufi and secular and they living with peace and honesty without interpreter in any nation so-called discrimnation like always Punjabi doing with Sindh. However,
Martyar Benazir Bhutto as who world suffring in shock almostly sindhi nations, we need to you write about sindh and sindhi nations after these crimes where our legends will be killed in the name of Islam/Conspiracy and first of all Pakistan the what will do Sindhi for there Peace and freedom
Muhammad Moosa Rind, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
What is more importnat is not who killed Bhutto but rather who the Pakistani pubilc thinks killed Bhutto. The actual truth will only muddy the already murky water of Pakistan politics.
A Currie, Don Valley, Canada
Who is that man with the raven hair?
Erika Salzeck, Carcassonne, France
Having observed the way that Scotland yard conducted themselves during and after the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting you'd have to conclude that their credibilty is streched to breaking point.
The question is are they credible investigators ? Admited, they are better than the Pakistani authorities, but that doesn't say much.
RJA, Nottingham, UK.
Cliff in France,
Benazir Bhutto is assassinated , qui bono? Who benefits?
Probably the person she was very likely to oust from power.
It's convenient that the biggest proprietors of the Al Qaeda bogeyman legend have come along and made this claim. Aren't the emperor's new clothes so dazzling?
Paul, London,
The article itself does not state anywhere that :"Scotland Yard believes that Al Qaeda assasinated Benazir Bhutto".All it refers to is "British and American officials".Are we to understand as per the leader of the newsitem ,that the "Britsh officials " are Scotland Yard?
Shahid Siddiqi, Karachi, Pakistan
This just further emphasizes the need for Musharref to act in good faith to the pple of pakistan. He may, or may not have have been responsible for her death. So, if he isnt guilty, then his course should be one of openness and good faith.
What a mess!
timtan, tampa, usa
AQ has not taking responsibility for the killing of Benazir, the Russian news and all other world media outlets who published a statement which was originally published by Asia times, Asia times claimed that a spokesman of AQ phone them and told them that it was AQ who killed Benazir, now we have thousands of Mujahideen sites where AQ statements and other Mujahideen organizations statements are published everyday, but up today there has been no statement posted were AQ has taking responsibility of killing Benazir,
If AQ phoned Asia times and took responsibility of her killing, then why would they not issue a statement on Mujahideen sites or other websites, why would they not call other mainstream media outlets too, so the truth is that there was no phone called made by AQ to Asia times.
Baitullah Mehsud after the bombing attack on Benazir in Karachi sent his representatives to meet the Benazir PPP representatives to let them know that it was not him who targeted Benazir, this point was mentioned in PPP media news conference after the killed of Benazir.
kd, toronto, canada
"Swat, an area where Mehsudâs men have been fighting" this is not true Baitullah Mehsud is the commander of Waziristan Mujahideen he is not the commander of Mujahideen fighting in Waziristan, only on the 25 December 2007 did the Swat Mujahideen made Baitullah Mehsud their commander, The Mujahideen who are fighting in Swat are from Swat, now Baitullah Mehsud and other commanders of Mujahideen operating in Pakistan have managed to come under one organization called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and who's commander is Baitullah Mehsud, and he in statement issue after Benazir killing denied any involvement in her killing and said it was Pakistan military and intelligence propaganda to blame him.
So please do not blame the Mujahideen for the killing of Benazir, cause understand this if the Mujahideen did they would be the first to tell the world cause they are not shy nor do they think about what you might think of them when they carry out their operations. Lot of people do not know the reality of Benazir, in 1992 she had order the killing of thousands of people in Karachi, during her power she robbed the wealth of Pakistan and the West loved that about her, but not the Pakistani.
kd, toronto, canada
Zardari would have the UN look into this? Has he checked out the last thing the UN looked into -- the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri? Well, whom has the UN fingered? Waiting....
unclesmrgol, Culver City, California, USA
JD Dublin,
Occams Razor - who stands to gain most from killing Bhutto?
Answer: Al Quaeda
QED.
Cliff, Marseille, France
What a bunch of crap, this is the same bhutto that claimed that osama bin laden was killed. Kind of discredits the whole Al Qaida story doesnt it. Am I the only person that isnt complicit in this farce called Al Qaida.
john, prince george, canada
Just ask al-qaeda if they did it.
cesarvolpe, São Paulo, Brazil
Al-Qaeda killed JFK
Al-Qaeda killed Jesus
Al-Qaeda killed my dog
Al-Qaeda broke my window
Al-Qaeda trains dogs to eat babies
Al-Qaeda is the most succesful scarecrow invented by the neocons...
Be afraid!!! Only the neocons can protect us... if we give up our freedom...
JD, Dublin, Ireland
Scotland Yard are now taking over the job of military intelligence are they? Well they are doing everything else!
Simon, London,
Weird, on the russian news they said AQ took responsibility since day one. Didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure it out...
Nick, Bethlehem,