PPP made the appointment of shoaib suddle saying that he has a degree in criminology something etc, and he is Number 1, now lets see his performance. I will keep a track of the following murder in karachi and lets see how soon he completes investigation
Sindh PML-N leader Tariq Khan shot dead
KARACHI, May 23: A leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N was shot ddead at Shaheed-i-Millat Road on Friday night.
Tariq Khan, vice-president of Sindh PML-N, was driving alone when the assailants on motorcycles intercepted him near the Medicare Hospital and shot him several times in his chest and neck, killing him instantly, as he was coming from the Sharfabad area.
“I was checking vehicles in Bahadurabad when shots were fired … We took him to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in our patrol vehicle,” said Inspector Zubair Mehmood, SHO of the New Town police station.
Tariq Khan was in his early 40s.
“We suspect that Mr Khan was being followed,” SP of Jamshad Town Javed Baloch said.
His view was endorsed by a local PML-N leader at the JPMC.
A large number of his party workers gathered at the hospital and forcibly brought his body back from the hospital’s morgue to the emergency ward.
Rowdy party workers made his postmortem, a legal formaility, impossible. They later put his body into an ambulance. They even bickered over the size of the ambulance and demanded a bigger vehicle.
The moment his body emerged, enraged party workers started firing in the air, creating panic.
PML-N Sindh’s president Saleem Zia condemned the murder and termed it a cowardly act.
“Tariq Khan’s killing is a part of an unending pattern of terrorism in the city. It is a message for democratic and political forces in Karachi.”
He announced a three-day mourning across the province and called for an independent and result-oriented inquiry and quick arrest of the killers.
Sindh police chief Dr Shoaib Suddle formed three investigation teams headed by DIG East A.D. Khwaja, DIG Investigation Ghulam Qadir Thebo and DIG CID Saud Ahmed Mirza, respectively.
A spokesman for the Sindh police chief said that Dr Suddle had assured the PML-N leadership of ‘full police cooperation’ and a prompt investigation to apprehend the killers.
A million-rupee reward was announced by the Sindh police for providing any information leading to the arrest of Tariq Khan’s killers.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
All missing people to be traced, says Naek
ISLAMABAD, April 16: Law Minister Farooq H. Naek has said the government will ensure release of all missing persons and details in this respect were being collected.
Talking to relatives of four missing persons who had called on him on Wednesday, the minister asked them to submit necessary details, including copies of FIRs and other relevant documents, so that the authorities concerned could be directed to pursue the matter.
Mr Naek assured them that after the details were provided, efforts would be made to trace their relatives.
Later talking to a delegation of the Islamabad Bar Association, he said the coalition government was committed to the reinstatement of deposed judges in accordance with the Murree Declaration. “By ordering the release of deposed judges after taking the oath, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has started the process of their reinstatement.”
Mr Naek said his ministry was working on amendments to the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance and these would soon be introduced soon.
He said the government was working on a number of proposals to improve the functioning of courts, including introduction of evening shift to clear the backlog of cases.
He said the government was planning to set up an autonomous ‘public defender office’ to provide justice to poor people. “We are also planning to do away with the surety law because it is difficult for the poor people to meet the surety requirements.”
Similarly, he said, the government was working to introduce a provision under which if a murder case was not decided within two years the accused would be able to get bail, and if other cases were not settled within a year the accused would be eligible to get bail.
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Friday, March 21, 2008
India hopes Sarabjit will get clemency
ISLAMABAD, March 20: India on Thursday said it hoped that Sarabjit Singh, a condemned Indian prisoner, would be granted clemency by the Pakistan government on humanitarian grounds.
A statement issued by the Indian High Commission said it was pleased to learn that Sarabjit Singh’s execution had been stayed.
The execution of Sarabjit convicted in terrorism cases relating to four blasts in Lahore and Multan was deferred by President Musharraf till April 30 after the Indian government and the convict’s sister filed fresh clemency appeals.
He was to be hanged on
April 1.
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Religious minorities in India feel unsafe: Asma
NEW DELHI, March 20: Unacceptable delays in delivering justice to victims of communal violence across India, the state’s occasional culpability in fomenting intolerance and exploitation of religious fault lines for politics were some of the issues listed on Thursday by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Asma Jehangir that she said required immediate attention.
“By and large, the Indians respect the diversity of religions and beliefs. At the same time, organised groups based on religious ideologies have unleashed the fear of mob violence in many parts of the country,” Ms Jehangir told a news conference at the end of a rare 18-day visit as the UN rapporteur. “All individuals I met recognised that a comprehensive legal framework to protect their rights exists, yet many of them -– especially from religious minorities -– remained dissatisfied with its implementation.”
Ms Jehangir’s mission follows a similar one undertaken by her predecessor in 1996. “My forthcoming report will also be a follow-up on developments during the past twelve years, in order to analyse what has changed and why.”
She said she was concerned at the extended timeframe of investigations in cases of communal riots, violence and massacres such as those which targeted the Sikhs in 1984, or the ones that followed the demolition of the Babri mosque and the most recent one in Gujarat in 2002.
“Any inquiry should not be done in indecent haste but it should be accorded the highest priority both from the investigation, the judiciary and any commission appointed to study the situation.
Unreasonable protraction of the inquiry only keeps tensions simmering and devalues justice.
“I was astonished to learn that just before I arrived in India, the Liberhan Commission -– probing the circumstances leading to the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya – got the 44th extension to conclude its inquiry,” she said.
The level of action of the government to protect its citizens in terms of freedom of religion or belief varies according to the states concerned. It was thus that the potential for greater harm to Kashmiri Pundits when they were forced to flee their homes was contained by the state’s prompt intervention, while the same could not be said about the protection of religious minorities in Gujarat, who continue to live in ghettoes and in fear.
“The de-escalation of violence in Jammu and Kashmir has had a positive impact on freedom of religion there,” Ms Jehangir said. “Places of worship are now more accessible and the tensions are reducing. There have been public statements inviting the Hindu Pundits to return to Kashmir. However, many interlocutors have confirmed a continuing bias amongst security forces against Muslims who also face problems with regard to exit controls lists and discrimination when renting hotel rooms outside Jammu and Kashmir,” she noted.
She urged the state of Orissa, where the Hindutva drive is intensive and widespread, to reconsider its anti-conversion legislation.
Less than three months ago, there was widespread violence in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, targeting primarily Christians in Dalit and tribal communities. The attacks could have been prevented since the Christian community alerted the authorities before the incident.
“The tensions are still prevalent and the state should rethink its anti-conversion legislation which has been used to vilify Christians in general,” she said.
In UP, communal violence continues to occur while perpetrators are dealt with sympathy by the law enforcement agents. “Some of the cases are still under investigation and I hope that justice will prevail.” In Gujarat, the wounds of the 2002 massacre, where by all accounts more than a thousand people -– mostly Muslims -– were killed, have not healed, she said. “In my discussions with victims I could see their continuing fear which is exacerbated by the reported complicity of the state government and the distress that justice continues to evade most victims and survivors.
“It is also critical for the state government to recognise that development without a policy of inclusiveness of all religious communities will only add to aggravate resentments. The same is true for the increasing ghettoisation of Muslims in certain areas.”
Ms Jehangir said her predecessor, Mr Abdelfattah Amor, “unfortunately was prophetic when he expressed his fears that something in the nature of the 1992 Ayodhya incident will recur in the event of political exploitation of a situation.
In my opinion, there is today a real risk that similar communal violence might happen again unless incitement to religious hatred and political exploitation of communal tensions are effectively prevented.
She urged the government and for non-state actors to diffuse tensions and address the root causes beforehand. The sincerity of the central government to implement the Sachar Committee report will be very much seen on the ground because state governments have been given direction to follow-up on the recommendations of the report.
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UK officials clueless about Asif’s degree
LONDON, March 20: British officials responsible for maintaining record of all educational institutions in the country have failed to find any trace of the institution in London from where Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is claimed to have received his graduation or equivalent qualification.
In a written response to questions by this correspondent, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said: “All that I can share with you on the basis of my information is that Mr Zardari passed his examination and qualified from Cadet College Petaro, Dadu. It was not a degree as the Petaro college is not a degree college.”
When asked about the institution from where Mr Zardari received his degree, he said: “Mr Zardari studied business and economics in a school in London now called (the) London School of Economics and Business.”
The PPP claims that Mr Zardari received his graduation or equivalent degree in 1976 from this school.
Mr Babar said that academic qualifications from London School of Economics and Business were said to be equivalent to a degree, but he did not know the ‘exact title’ of Mr Zardari’s degree and address of the institution.
The PPP spokesman is not the only one who could not find the exact address or existence of the institution. Edubase UK, the country’s official body responsible for maintaining records of all private and public educational institutions, is also clueless.
In a written response to questions about London School of Economics and Business, an Edubase official said: “In order to ascertain whether or not an institution exists, I conduct a search on three registers, Edubase, The Register of Education and Training Providers and the UK Register of Learning Providers. I have been unable to find evidence of this institution.”
An official at the UK Register of Learning Providers said: “Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate London School of Economics and Business.”
Mr Zardari was twice elected as MNA from 1990-93 and 1993-96, remained senator from 1997-99 and served as a federal minister in 1993 and again in 1996.
To become a parliamentarian a minimum degree of graduation is required, a condition introduced in 2002.
Analysts say if Mr Zardari is seeking to be a parliamentarian by contesting from NA-207, the seat of assassinated PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, he will have to submit his degree to the Election Commission. Otherwise, the PPP and its coalition partners will have to do away with the degree requirement through a constitutional amendment.
Credible records of Mr Zardari attending Cadet College in Petaro exist. He joined the college’s Jinnah House in 1966 as a student of eighth grade.
School records show that Mr Zardari completed his Higher Secondary School Education (FA/FSc) in 1974.
Mr Farhatullah Babar said: “The issue of academic qualifications and their equivalence did not arise until now. However, now that the media is asking about it we are trying to gather full details.”
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Pope behind new crusade: Osama
CAIRO, March 20: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a ‘’new Crusade’’ against Islam and warned in a new audiotape of a ‘’severe’’ reaction for Europeans’ publication of blasphemous cartoons.
The message raised concerns Al Qaeda was plotting new attacks in Europe. Some experts said Osama, believed to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, might be unable to organise such an attack himself and instead was trying to fan anger over the cartoons to inspire violence by supporters.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said Osama’s accusation that Pope Benedict XVI had played a role in a worldwide campaign against Islam was ‘’baseless.’’
Lombardi said the Pope on several occasions had criticised the cartoons, first published in several European newspapers in 2006 then republished in Danish papers in February.
Osama’s audiotape was posted on Wednesday on a militant website that has carried Al Qaeda statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group’s media wing Al Sahab.
’’You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings,’’ he said. ‘’This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.’’
He said the cartoons ‘’came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role,’’ according to a transcript released by the SITE Institute, a US group that monitors terror messages.
Danish intelligence service said the reprinting of the cartoon had brought ‘’negative attention’’ to Denmark and may have increased the risk to Danes at home and abroad.
The original 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper, then in several papers across Europe, triggered major protests in Muslim countries in 2006. Muslims see the cartoons as an insult. —AP
The message raised concerns Al Qaeda was plotting new attacks in Europe. Some experts said Osama, believed to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, might be unable to organise such an attack himself and instead was trying to fan anger over the cartoons to inspire violence by supporters.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said Osama’s accusation that Pope Benedict XVI had played a role in a worldwide campaign against Islam was ‘’baseless.’’
Lombardi said the Pope on several occasions had criticised the cartoons, first published in several European newspapers in 2006 then republished in Danish papers in February.
Osama’s audiotape was posted on Wednesday on a militant website that has carried Al Qaeda statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group’s media wing Al Sahab.
’’You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings,’’ he said. ‘’This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.’’
He said the cartoons ‘’came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role,’’ according to a transcript released by the SITE Institute, a US group that monitors terror messages.
Danish intelligence service said the reprinting of the cartoon had brought ‘’negative attention’’ to Denmark and may have increased the risk to Danes at home and abroad.
The original 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper, then in several papers across Europe, triggered major protests in Muslim countries in 2006. Muslims see the cartoons as an insult. —AP
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India launches probe into prisoner’s death
NEW DELHI, March 20: Authorities in India have launched an investigation into the mysterious death in prison of a Pakistani man who Islamabad says came here to watch a cricket match, a report said on Thursday.
Khalid Mahmood, 26, had apparently travelled to India three years ago to see a game between the Pakistani and Indian cricket teams. Last week, his relatives alleged he was tortured to death by Indian police who picked him up when he went to the Pakistani embassy to report the loss of his passport.
The Indian government ordered the probe after Pakistans foreign ministry demanded an explanation for his death, Indian television network NDTV reported.—AFP
Khalid Mahmood, 26, had apparently travelled to India three years ago to see a game between the Pakistani and Indian cricket teams. Last week, his relatives alleged he was tortured to death by Indian police who picked him up when he went to the Pakistani embassy to report the loss of his passport.
The Indian government ordered the probe after Pakistans foreign ministry demanded an explanation for his death, Indian television network NDTV reported.—AFP
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Pakistani prisoner freed by India
By Our Staff Reporter
LAHORE, March 19: The Indian Border Security Force released a Pakistani prisoner at Wagah on Wednesday.
Jamal Qureshi, a native of Sukkur, was received by caretaker federal Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney at the border.
Jamal’s relatives were also present at the border. Rangers officials allowed him to go with his family after completion of formalities. However, a spoksman for the Rangers said they had not received any formal intimation about the prisoner’s release.
LAHORE, March 19: The Indian Border Security Force released a Pakistani prisoner at Wagah on Wednesday.Jamal Qureshi, a native of Sukkur, was received by caretaker federal Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney at the border.
Jamal’s relatives were also present at the border. Rangers officials allowed him to go with his family after completion of formalities. However, a spoksman for the Rangers said they had not received any formal intimation about the prisoner’s release.
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Sarabjit’s execution put off for a month
By Baqir Sajjad Syed
ISLAMABAD, March 19: President Pervez Musharraf has deferred the execution of condemned Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh for 30 days following fresh Indian diplomatic moves to get a reprieve for him.
“The president of Pakistan has been pleased to stay the execution of condemned prisoner Manjeet Singh alias Sarabjit Singh for a period of 30 days up to April 30, 2008,” said a presidential order issued on Wednesday.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people. His execution was earlier fixed for April 1.
The Supreme Court rejected his mercy petition in March 2006 and upheld the death sentence. President Musharraf had rejected his mercy petition on March 3.
Sources said the execution had been deferred to get time to consider India’s clemency plea made on Tuesday.
The Indian government stressed that the execution would impinge on the ‘positive atmosphere’ between the two countries, particularly in view of a perception that the sudden decision to hang him was in retaliation for the unfortunate death of Pakistani prisoner Khalid Mehmood in a jail in India.
Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur has also sent a written appeal to President Musharraf.
Islamabad’s decision was reciprocated by New Delhi which released Pakistani prisoner Jamal Qureshi who had been arrested by Indian authorities in 2005 for possessing counterfeit Indian currency.
Reuters adds: Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Indian parliament about President Musharraf’s decision.
The deputy superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore said: “We have received orders from the President’s House whereby the punishment has been deferred.”
ISLAMABAD, March 19: President Pervez Musharraf has deferred the execution of condemned Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh for 30 days following fresh Indian diplomatic moves to get a reprieve for him.
“The president of Pakistan has been pleased to stay the execution of condemned prisoner Manjeet Singh alias Sarabjit Singh for a period of 30 days up to April 30, 2008,” said a presidential order issued on Wednesday.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people. His execution was earlier fixed for April 1.
The Supreme Court rejected his mercy petition in March 2006 and upheld the death sentence. President Musharraf had rejected his mercy petition on March 3.
Sources said the execution had been deferred to get time to consider India’s clemency plea made on Tuesday.
The Indian government stressed that the execution would impinge on the ‘positive atmosphere’ between the two countries, particularly in view of a perception that the sudden decision to hang him was in retaliation for the unfortunate death of Pakistani prisoner Khalid Mehmood in a jail in India.
Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur has also sent a written appeal to President Musharraf.
Islamabad’s decision was reciprocated by New Delhi which released Pakistani prisoner Jamal Qureshi who had been arrested by Indian authorities in 2005 for possessing counterfeit Indian currency.
Reuters adds: Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Indian parliament about President Musharraf’s decision.
The deputy superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore said: “We have received orders from the President’s House whereby the punishment has been deferred.”
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Umpire Hair vows to be good with players
Thursday, March 20, 2008
SYDNEY: Darrell Hair says he hopes to communicate better with the players when he returns to international test cricket umpiring after an absence of nearly 18 months.
``I've always been a little bit ... standoffish in that I've always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard,'' Hair told a Sydney radio station Thursday.
Hair, reinstated as a test match umpire this week by the International Cricket Council, had been banned since November 2006 because of his conduct during a test between Pakistan and England that led to the first forfeit in test cricket's 129-year history.
``I won't say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future,'' he said. ``Probably just ... having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you want is understood by the other people.''
His return comes after he completed a so-called ``rehabilitation program'' him handed him in September when he agreed to drop a claim of racial discrimination by the ICC.
Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering and, when the team refused to take the field after a break, he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove awarded the forfeit.
The ICC declined to say if the 55-year-old Australian could umpire any match involving Pakistan. Hair's position will be reviewed at the end of March 2009, the ICC said.
On Thursday, Hair said the incident ``caused me a lot of stress. I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way.''
``The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that's going to happen in future,'' he added. ``So, it's time to move on.
Hair said he would be available to umpire in Pakistan.
``Part of my contract is that I'm available now to umpire test matches and one-day internationals,'' Hair said. ``Now whether that (umpiring in Pakistan) is going to happen I think you'll need to ask the people who make the appointments.''
SYDNEY: Darrell Hair says he hopes to communicate better with the players when he returns to international test cricket umpiring after an absence of nearly 18 months. ``I've always been a little bit ... standoffish in that I've always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard,'' Hair told a Sydney radio station Thursday.
Hair, reinstated as a test match umpire this week by the International Cricket Council, had been banned since November 2006 because of his conduct during a test between Pakistan and England that led to the first forfeit in test cricket's 129-year history.
``I won't say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future,'' he said. ``Probably just ... having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you want is understood by the other people.''
His return comes after he completed a so-called ``rehabilitation program'' him handed him in September when he agreed to drop a claim of racial discrimination by the ICC.
Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering and, when the team refused to take the field after a break, he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove awarded the forfeit.
The ICC declined to say if the 55-year-old Australian could umpire any match involving Pakistan. Hair's position will be reviewed at the end of March 2009, the ICC said.
On Thursday, Hair said the incident ``caused me a lot of stress. I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way.''
``The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that's going to happen in future,'' he added. ``So, it's time to move on.
Hair said he would be available to umpire in Pakistan.
``Part of my contract is that I'm available now to umpire test matches and one-day internationals,'' Hair said. ``Now whether that (umpiring in Pakistan) is going to happen I think you'll need to ask the people who make the appointments.''
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Hair included in elite panel, won’t supervise Pakistan matches
Thursday, March 20, 2008 DUBAI: Controversial umpire Darrel Hair has been included in the ICC elite panel but he will not supervise any match of Pakistan.The International Cricket Council (ICC) had reinstated the elite panel status of Darrel Hair on previous day but it was not pointed out that whether he would supervise the matches involving Pakistan or not. However, general manager ICC Dave Richardson said that the governing body of the ICC has decided that Darrel Hair would be kept away from umpiring those matches in which Pakistan would be involved. |
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Baitullah among five proclaimed offenders
By Mudassir Raja
RAWALPINDI, March 18: An anti-terrorism court here on Tuesday declared Baitullah Mehsud and four other militants ‘proclaimed offenders’ in a case relating to the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto after they failed to appear in the court.
Special Judge of ATC-I Chaudhry Habibur Rehman issued the orders under Sections 87 (Proclamation for person absconding) and 88 (Attachment of property of person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1898 and directed investigators to put up ‘wanted’ posters for Mehsud and Ikramullah, the alleged second would-be suicide bomber, Abadur Rehman, Abdullah alias Saddam and Faiz Mohammad alias Kaskat.
The court was to formally frame charges against the five persons arrested in connection with the case – Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Abdul Rasheed, Hassnain Gul and Muhammad Rafaqat – but the hearing was adjourned till April 21 because of the absence of prosecution lawyers. The first three men are accused of concealing the conspiracy to kill Ms Bhutto and the other two of helping the suicide bomber.
Meanwhile, Aitzaz’s lawyer filed an application under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 demanding his separate trial because he was under 18 years of age at the time of his arrest. According to his birth certificate, he was born on April 19, 1992, in Karachi.
Lawyer of accused Sher Zaman filed a bail plea, saying no incriminating evidence had been produced against his client and the confessional statement of Aitzaz had been recorded under duress. Aitzaz had said that Sher Zaman was handling him as a suicide bomber on behalf of Baitullah Mehsud.
According to the bail application, Sher Zaman, a native of South Waziristan, was arrested from his house in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan 18 and not along with Aitzaz as claimed by police.Interestingly, the petitioner has included the name of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the list of respondents while the complainant in the December 27 case was a local SHO.
Hearing in cases related to suicide blasts in R.A. Bazaar and the on a road leading to the Army House was adjourned till April 1.
Mohammad Rafaqat and Hasnain are also involved in the two cases and are in Adiala Jail on judicial remand. Police charge-sheet is awaited in the cases.
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Clemency plea for Indian not to be entertained
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, March 18: The government has decided not to entertain a fresh clemency appeal from the Indian government for an Indian convict, Sarabjit Singh, who is to be executed on April 1.
“He would be hanged on the exact date (April 1) and there would be no delay,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Tuesday.
He said at his weekly media briefing that the government had received a fresh mercy appeal from the Indian government but it would not be entertained.
The date of the execution was fixed after President Pervez Musharraf turned down his mercy petition. He has been convicted by superior courts of the country for committing acts of terrorism in Pakistan.
A notification for his execution has been sent to the Punjab government because the convict was in the custody of the Punjab police.
Mr Cheema said four American nationals who received injuries in a blast at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad were not personnel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“One of them was a legal attaché of the US embassy and three others were his subordinates,” he added. The spokesman said they had flown back to their country the day after the blast.
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Ansar Burney says Indian set for gallows should have life sentence instead
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Human Rights, Ansar Burney Tuesday said President Pervez Musharraf should halt the execution of a convicted Indian terrorist and let him live out his days in jail. India's government is seeking a reprieve for Sarabjit Singh, jailed in Pakistan in 1990 for alleged spying and involvement in bomb blasts. He is scheduled to be hanged on April 1. Ansar Burney said he expected to receive an appeal for clemency from Singh's family this week. He said he would urge President Musharraf to convert Singh's sentence to life imprisonment. |
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Sarabjit Singh to be hanged on April 1: Cheema
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 ISLAMABAD: Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for involvement in four bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990, would be executed on April one, Interior Ministry Spokesman Brig (Retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said Tuesday. “He would be hanged on the exact date (April 1) and there would be no delay in his hanging,” Cheema told a weekly media briefing. Sarabjit, in Pakistan custody for last 17 years, had been convicted of involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed about 14 people. In March 2006, the Supreme Court of Pakistan rejected Sarabjit’s plea for clemency. President Pervez Musharraf on March 3 this year rejected the mercy petition of Sarabjit, whose actual name according to Pakistan is Manjit Singh. |
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Controversial Darrell Hair reinstated by ICC as Test umpire
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 DUBAI: The reinstatement of Darrell Hair to the full international panel of umpires was the most surprising outcome of the International Cricket Council's two-day meeting in Dubai, which finished today. Hair has been undergoing what the ICC call "rehabilitation" since his decision to penalise the Pakistan team five runs for ball-tampering during the Oval Test of 2006 resulted in the first forfeited match in Test history. An ICC spokesman said: "The board have decided that he can he can be appointed to matches involving full member countries once more." David Morgan, the incoming ICC president, said yesterday that Hair would be assigned to a full international programme. "Mr Hair is a very good and a very competent umpire," he told reporters. "He has had time away from the coalface and umpired other activities." However, Morgan would not comment on whether Hair would be assigned to matches involving Pakistan, saying only that the allocation process would be handled by the ICC's operations manager David Richardson. The Pakistan board are understood to be opposed to Hair's return, and it seems likely that this will be only a partial reprieve in which Hair officiates in selected matches – ie. those not involving sub-continental teams. Today's press conference also revealed that there would be no sanctions taken against Zimbabwe Cricket, despite financial anomalies in their accounting which have been investigated by KPMG. According to Ray Mali - the South African who is coming to the end of his term as ICC president – "no individual or individuals have been singled out as having benefited from the finances in any way". Instead, Mali explained, the problems – or "irregularities" – resulted from the seizure of important documentation by police and banking authorities. This ruling is unlikely to please the England and Wales Cricket Board, who are scheduled to host the Zimbabwean team twice next summer. The press conference also included details of Inder Singh Bindra's appointment as "principal advisor" to the ICC. He will have a major role in the "promotion and development of the game", with special attention to the American market. He will also "assist host boards with the smooth functioning of ICC events". Morgan said that Bindra had been appointed after the realisation that "the image of the ICC could be improved, and so could relations between members". Meanwhile, Imtiaz Patel, the man picked out as the ICC's preferred candidate to succeed Malcolm Speed as chief executive, has made it clear that this is far from being a done deal. "I am humbled that the ICC has stated that it will invite me to fulfil such an important role within cricket, a sport that has a very special place in my heart," he said in a statement. "I enjoy a most rewarding and happy career in my current role as CEO of SuperSport, which is a dynamic organisation within a wonderful international group. "I will therefore be considering my position very carefully during the coming weeks and will be engaging in discussions with the ICC during this period." |
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India urges Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit
Lets see what the Pakistan government does. Its important to note that a cricket fan who lost his passport in India was killed in Jail by the Indian Authorities. Do we come under pressure and release Sarabjit?
India urges Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit |
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday made an appeal to Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit Singh on humanitarian grounds as members in the Lok Sabha made a strong plea to the government to step up efforts to save the Indian national from the gallows. Amid demands that Sarabjit be saved from death, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a suo motu statement in the House, saying the government had no formal intimation from Pakistan and the matter about the 'death warrant' had come to the notice through media reports. Indian High Commission in Islamabad has sought details from the Government of Pakistan about reports of black warrant against Sarabjit, he said. "According to press reports, the black warrant has been issued and the sentence will be carried out on April one," Mukherjee said about Sarabjit, who is facing death sentence for allegedly carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990. Noting that India and Pakistan had put in place certain institutional arrangements to improve the situation of prisoners of the respective countries, he said "it is in this context and in the same spirit that we appeal to the Government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh's case with clemency on humanitarian grounds." Members, cutting across party lines, voiced concern over reports that Sarabjit was going to be hanged on April 1 and wanted the House to pass a resolution urging Pakistan not to hang him. Pakistani media reports on Sunday said President Pervez Musharraf had rejected Sarabjit's mercy petition and the death warrant has been received at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail of Lahore where he has been languishing for the past 17 years. The External Affairs Minister's statement came in the backdrop of intense demands that the government act to save Sarabjit from death. |
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Friday, February 8, 2008
Two suspects remanded in police custody: Benazir’s assassination
By A Reporter
RAWALPINDI, Feb 8: An anti-terrorism court here on Friday gave two suspects in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination plot into physical custody of police for 12 days after police sought their custody to extract more information.
ATC 1 Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman remanded Hasnain and Rafaqat in police custody after a superintendent of police sought their custody saying the joint investigation team was looking into the December 27 assassination of former Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson and wanted to obtain further information from the suspects. The suspects will again be produced in the court on February 20.
According to police the two men were arrested two days ago from Rawalpindi on the information of Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman who were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan some three weeks ago.
The arrested persons are said to be relatives of Aitzaz and Sher Zaman. The investigators have also claimed that the suspects have links with the tribal areas militants.
Both Hasnain and Rafaqat are to be probed in a case booked with City Police Station on December 27, 2007 under the charges of murder, attempted murder, terrorism, having and using banned explosive materials, causing mischief by fire and explosives to damage property and criminal conspiracy. The gun and bomb attack outside Liaqat Bagh Park killed Benazir along with 21 workers of the PPP.
Meanwhile a civil judge asked the Punjab and city district government Rawalpindi to submit their comments in writing in response to a suit filed by Pakistan People’s Party workers seeking a piece of land at Liaqat Bagh to build a monument in commemoration of slain Benazir and 21 other people.
Civil Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan asked both provincial and district government to file their reply in response to a suit filed by Muhammad Ishfaq Chaudhry along with seven men that wanted a piece of land for the a monument.
RAWALPINDI, Feb 8: An anti-terrorism court here on Friday gave two suspects in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination plot into physical custody of police for 12 days after police sought their custody to extract more information.
ATC 1 Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman remanded Hasnain and Rafaqat in police custody after a superintendent of police sought their custody saying the joint investigation team was looking into the December 27 assassination of former Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson and wanted to obtain further information from the suspects. The suspects will again be produced in the court on February 20.
According to police the two men were arrested two days ago from Rawalpindi on the information of Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman who were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan some three weeks ago.
The arrested persons are said to be relatives of Aitzaz and Sher Zaman. The investigators have also claimed that the suspects have links with the tribal areas militants.
Both Hasnain and Rafaqat are to be probed in a case booked with City Police Station on December 27, 2007 under the charges of murder, attempted murder, terrorism, having and using banned explosive materials, causing mischief by fire and explosives to damage property and criminal conspiracy. The gun and bomb attack outside Liaqat Bagh Park killed Benazir along with 21 workers of the PPP.
Meanwhile a civil judge asked the Punjab and city district government Rawalpindi to submit their comments in writing in response to a suit filed by Pakistan People’s Party workers seeking a piece of land at Liaqat Bagh to build a monument in commemoration of slain Benazir and 21 other people.
Civil Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan asked both provincial and district government to file their reply in response to a suit filed by Muhammad Ishfaq Chaudhry along with seven men that wanted a piece of land for the a monument.
Two suspects held in Benazir case
By Syed Irfan Raza and Mohammad Asghar
ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI, Feb 7: Police said on Thursday they had arrested two more suspects in connection with the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, as a Scotland Yard team helping Pakistani investigators into the terror attack of Dec 27 returned to Islamabad from Britain.
A senior police official confirmed the arrest of the two suspects and said they were being interrogated.
“Two very important terrorists – Hasnain and Rafaqat – have been arrested this morning with the help of Rawalpindi police,” a police statement said.
Police said that Hasnain and Rafaqat were relatives of two key suspects arrested earlier in connection with the assassination.
Law-enforcement agencies arrested 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah last month, who admitted to being a back-up suicide bomber for a team that assassinated Ms Bhutto. He and his handler Sher Zaman, who are from Manshera district, were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan.
The Scotland Yard team is likely to hand over a report to the Pakistani authorities on Friday, interior ministry sources told Dawn.
Shortly after their arrival in Islamabad, members of the team visited the Police Lines in Rawalpindi and discussed some important issues with Pakistani investigators and bomb disposal experts.
When contacted, Interior Minister Lt-Gen Hamid Nawaz said the British investigators had not informed the government about how long they would stay in Pakistan.
“The team will be free to further investigate the case,” he said.
According to terms of reference agreed between Pakistan and the UK, the team could assist local investigators in finding out the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death. However, the primacy and responsibility for the investigation rests with the Pakistani authorities.
“The British investigators are not confined to determine only the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and it depends on them to investigate the case also and unveil the persons involved in the assassination,” the minister said.
Sources in the interior ministry said the government had given very ‘short’ time to foreign experts to determine the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death as they had been asked to complete their investigations before the Feb 18 election.
AGENCIES ADD: Both men had “tentacles from the tribal region and Baitullah Mehsud,” a senior security official said.
“It is a major breakthrough. These two men were involved in the assassination and they are from a militant group which is relatively new,” the official said.
ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI, Feb 7: Police said on Thursday they had arrested two more suspects in connection with the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, as a Scotland Yard team helping Pakistani investigators into the terror attack of Dec 27 returned to Islamabad from Britain.
A senior police official confirmed the arrest of the two suspects and said they were being interrogated.
“Two very important terrorists – Hasnain and Rafaqat – have been arrested this morning with the help of Rawalpindi police,” a police statement said.
Police said that Hasnain and Rafaqat were relatives of two key suspects arrested earlier in connection with the assassination.
Law-enforcement agencies arrested 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah last month, who admitted to being a back-up suicide bomber for a team that assassinated Ms Bhutto. He and his handler Sher Zaman, who are from Manshera district, were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan.
The Scotland Yard team is likely to hand over a report to the Pakistani authorities on Friday, interior ministry sources told Dawn.
Shortly after their arrival in Islamabad, members of the team visited the Police Lines in Rawalpindi and discussed some important issues with Pakistani investigators and bomb disposal experts.
When contacted, Interior Minister Lt-Gen Hamid Nawaz said the British investigators had not informed the government about how long they would stay in Pakistan.
“The team will be free to further investigate the case,” he said.
According to terms of reference agreed between Pakistan and the UK, the team could assist local investigators in finding out the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death. However, the primacy and responsibility for the investigation rests with the Pakistani authorities.
“The British investigators are not confined to determine only the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and it depends on them to investigate the case also and unveil the persons involved in the assassination,” the minister said.
Sources in the interior ministry said the government had given very ‘short’ time to foreign experts to determine the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death as they had been asked to complete their investigations before the Feb 18 election.
AGENCIES ADD: Both men had “tentacles from the tribal region and Baitullah Mehsud,” a senior security official said.
“It is a major breakthrough. These two men were involved in the assassination and they are from a militant group which is relatively new,” the official said.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
3 UK detectives due today
By Mohammad Asghar
RAWALPINDI, Feb 6: Three Scotland Yard detectives investigating into the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto will arrive in Islamabad on Thursday morning, Dawn has learnt on good authority. Six members of the Yard team had returned to Britain after collecting evidence and other material.
The British government had sent the investigators at the request of Pakistan to assist local agencies in the probe.
RAWALPINDI, Feb 6: Three Scotland Yard detectives investigating into the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto will arrive in Islamabad on Thursday morning, Dawn has learnt on good authority. Six members of the Yard team had returned to Britain after collecting evidence and other material.
The British government had sent the investigators at the request of Pakistan to assist local agencies in the probe.
KARACHI: Ailing Guantanamo inmate may die, says his lawyer
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim
KARACHI: Terming her life “slightly abnormal” when she compares it to her friends’ who are just finding their way to adulthood, Muneeza Paracha, 25, says she has no complaints having had to suddenly grow up and juggle between mothering her now ailing mother and acting as a “cushion” to her two teenage siblings.
And that’s not all. While continuing her studies, she is keeping her father Saifullah Paracha’s business running till “he comes back and takes over”.
While Muneeza is waiting to hand over the business reins to her father, the latter’s lawyer is not too sure if he will make it alive unless the Pakistan government intervenes.
Saifullah Paracha, incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless he is provided special care, says the lawyer.
“The government of Pakistan cannot sit by and allow this to continue,” Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with Reprieve, a British legal rights group, told this reporter through e-mail.
“I am gravely concerned that unless Mr Paracha is given heart treatment immediately, he will die in Guantanamo Bay. He is 60 years old and suffers severe heart pains and shortness of breath multiple times a week. Far too many of his close relatives have died of heart disease around the same age. The technology exists to keep him alive, but the US government will not help him. He needs a heart procedure to diagnose the problem and quite likely needs open heart surgery for which he needs a proper cardiac facility,” pointed out Katznelson, adding: “The government of Pakistan must step in to save Mr Paracha’s life.’’
One of the six Pakistani prisoners currently in Guantanamo, Paracha, Karachi-based businessman and philanthropist, went missing in July 2003 while on a business trip to Bangkok. The family learnt later that he had been picked up from the Bangkok airport and whisked away to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. After 15 months, he was flown to Cuba.
So far, five prisoners have died in Guantanamo, the last death being that of Abdul Razzak, 68, from Afghanistan, in December. “The US said he died of colon cancer, a treatable condition if caught early enough, and claimed to be investigating three of those deaths for a year and a half, but has never released results of the investigation. They have been investigating the fourth death since May 2007, also with no public result,” said the Reprieve counsel.
According to ‘Cageprisoners’, a London-based human rights group, there are several Guantanamo inmates suffering from serious health problems.
Among those believed ailing are Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan, who got infected with HIV during blood transfusion in Guantanamo. Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, complained of pain and blood in his urine and Abdulkhaliq al Baidhani, a Yemeni, who had earlier lost an eye and is fast losing sight in the other one.
Katznelson, who met Paracha on Jan 18, said he was being kept in a “steel box” in Camp 5. “He is kept in his cell (2m by 3m) 22 hours a day and allowed some reprieve for two hours either at 6am or sometimes at midnight. He can go for weeks without seeing the sun, but the cell is lit up by the monstrous neon lights 24 hours a day. He is given only one book a week to read and not allowed to speak on the telephone with his family, nor can he receive visitors, except his lawyers; mail often takes six to nine months to get through and when it does, it is heavily censored.”
Last year, the US government had offered Paracha treatment at the base, but he refused saying that the facilities were “inadequate and risky”. He had then asked to be sent to a proper cardiac unit. He had also said that his decision was purely rational and not emotional.
”When Paracha asked the Guantanamo doctor whether he saw him as a patient or as an enemy, the doctor’s response was ‘enemy’,” said the lawyer.
But while these four years may have taken a toll on his health, his spirit remains far from broken, says his counsel. “He remains driven by two facts. One, he has always maintained his innocence of any affiliation with terrorism or extremism. Two, he longs to be reunited with his wife and children. All he is asking for is the chance to defend himself.”
Wife’s life at standstill
Back home, things are not well for Paracha’s family. His wife, Farhat, is in deep depression and seems to have given up the “hope to live”. “The fighting spirit in her has died,” says Muneeza sorrowfully.
At 53, Farhat Paracha’s life is on hold. She finds no closure in this “forced separation”.
“In a way I think a woman who is divorced or a widow still accepts her circumstances and moves on. For her, the torture of waiting continues,” says her daughter.
But it is not just the forced separation of her husband alone that has brought Farhat’s life to a tragic standstill.
Her son Uzair Paracha, a fresh graduate on his maiden business venture to the US, was picked up by federal agents in February 2003, on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda. He was sentenced to 30 years and has been in a US prison now for exactly five years.
Uzair is being represented by Joshua Dratel, who also represented David Hicks, the young Australian who became the first Guantanamo prisoner to plead guilty under the US Military Commissions Act passed last year and was sentenced to nine months in prison in Australia.
Sadly, while international lawyers seem to be losing sleep trying to get this Pakistani released, rights groups here remain unmoved and the Paracha story seems relegated to the far recesses of their minds.
“We have often highlighted Paracha’s case in our reports,” says I.A. Rehman, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Asma Jehangir tried to visit Guantanamo with two other rapporteurs, but was disallowed,” he said.
Criticising Islamabad, Mr Rehman said: “Our government is quite callous about Pakistanis in distress abroad. It assumes every Pakistani who comes into conflict with law abroad deserves to be ignored and left to fend for himself. Islamabad does not want even to see that Pakistanis, facing trial or execution in foreign lands, have the minimum necessary guarantees of justice.”
Even the political parties are least pushed and not pressuring the government to take concrete steps.
Former senator and spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party, Farhatullah Babar, said his party had repeatedly raised the issue of those whisked away to Guantánamo with the government. “We have reproached the government and asked it to divulge what it was doing in this regard. Not once have we been given any formal response,’’ Babar said.
However, he acknowledges “we may not have done enough” as there are no positive results to be seen. “Perhaps what is needed, now more than ever, is for all the political forces to join hands and pressure the government to get our citizens back.” —Dawn/IPS News Service
KARACHI: Terming her life “slightly abnormal” when she compares it to her friends’ who are just finding their way to adulthood, Muneeza Paracha, 25, says she has no complaints having had to suddenly grow up and juggle between mothering her now ailing mother and acting as a “cushion” to her two teenage siblings.
And that’s not all. While continuing her studies, she is keeping her father Saifullah Paracha’s business running till “he comes back and takes over”.
While Muneeza is waiting to hand over the business reins to her father, the latter’s lawyer is not too sure if he will make it alive unless the Pakistan government intervenes.
Saifullah Paracha, incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless he is provided special care, says the lawyer.
“The government of Pakistan cannot sit by and allow this to continue,” Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with Reprieve, a British legal rights group, told this reporter through e-mail.
“I am gravely concerned that unless Mr Paracha is given heart treatment immediately, he will die in Guantanamo Bay. He is 60 years old and suffers severe heart pains and shortness of breath multiple times a week. Far too many of his close relatives have died of heart disease around the same age. The technology exists to keep him alive, but the US government will not help him. He needs a heart procedure to diagnose the problem and quite likely needs open heart surgery for which he needs a proper cardiac facility,” pointed out Katznelson, adding: “The government of Pakistan must step in to save Mr Paracha’s life.’’
One of the six Pakistani prisoners currently in Guantanamo, Paracha, Karachi-based businessman and philanthropist, went missing in July 2003 while on a business trip to Bangkok. The family learnt later that he had been picked up from the Bangkok airport and whisked away to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. After 15 months, he was flown to Cuba.
So far, five prisoners have died in Guantanamo, the last death being that of Abdul Razzak, 68, from Afghanistan, in December. “The US said he died of colon cancer, a treatable condition if caught early enough, and claimed to be investigating three of those deaths for a year and a half, but has never released results of the investigation. They have been investigating the fourth death since May 2007, also with no public result,” said the Reprieve counsel.
According to ‘Cageprisoners’, a London-based human rights group, there are several Guantanamo inmates suffering from serious health problems.
Among those believed ailing are Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan, who got infected with HIV during blood transfusion in Guantanamo. Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, complained of pain and blood in his urine and Abdulkhaliq al Baidhani, a Yemeni, who had earlier lost an eye and is fast losing sight in the other one.
Katznelson, who met Paracha on Jan 18, said he was being kept in a “steel box” in Camp 5. “He is kept in his cell (2m by 3m) 22 hours a day and allowed some reprieve for two hours either at 6am or sometimes at midnight. He can go for weeks without seeing the sun, but the cell is lit up by the monstrous neon lights 24 hours a day. He is given only one book a week to read and not allowed to speak on the telephone with his family, nor can he receive visitors, except his lawyers; mail often takes six to nine months to get through and when it does, it is heavily censored.”
Last year, the US government had offered Paracha treatment at the base, but he refused saying that the facilities were “inadequate and risky”. He had then asked to be sent to a proper cardiac unit. He had also said that his decision was purely rational and not emotional.
”When Paracha asked the Guantanamo doctor whether he saw him as a patient or as an enemy, the doctor’s response was ‘enemy’,” said the lawyer.
But while these four years may have taken a toll on his health, his spirit remains far from broken, says his counsel. “He remains driven by two facts. One, he has always maintained his innocence of any affiliation with terrorism or extremism. Two, he longs to be reunited with his wife and children. All he is asking for is the chance to defend himself.”
Wife’s life at standstill
Back home, things are not well for Paracha’s family. His wife, Farhat, is in deep depression and seems to have given up the “hope to live”. “The fighting spirit in her has died,” says Muneeza sorrowfully.
At 53, Farhat Paracha’s life is on hold. She finds no closure in this “forced separation”.
“In a way I think a woman who is divorced or a widow still accepts her circumstances and moves on. For her, the torture of waiting continues,” says her daughter.
But it is not just the forced separation of her husband alone that has brought Farhat’s life to a tragic standstill.
Her son Uzair Paracha, a fresh graduate on his maiden business venture to the US, was picked up by federal agents in February 2003, on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda. He was sentenced to 30 years and has been in a US prison now for exactly five years.
Uzair is being represented by Joshua Dratel, who also represented David Hicks, the young Australian who became the first Guantanamo prisoner to plead guilty under the US Military Commissions Act passed last year and was sentenced to nine months in prison in Australia.
Sadly, while international lawyers seem to be losing sleep trying to get this Pakistani released, rights groups here remain unmoved and the Paracha story seems relegated to the far recesses of their minds.
“We have often highlighted Paracha’s case in our reports,” says I.A. Rehman, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Asma Jehangir tried to visit Guantanamo with two other rapporteurs, but was disallowed,” he said.
Criticising Islamabad, Mr Rehman said: “Our government is quite callous about Pakistanis in distress abroad. It assumes every Pakistani who comes into conflict with law abroad deserves to be ignored and left to fend for himself. Islamabad does not want even to see that Pakistanis, facing trial or execution in foreign lands, have the minimum necessary guarantees of justice.”
Even the political parties are least pushed and not pressuring the government to take concrete steps.
Former senator and spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party, Farhatullah Babar, said his party had repeatedly raised the issue of those whisked away to Guantánamo with the government. “We have reproached the government and asked it to divulge what it was doing in this regard. Not once have we been given any formal response,’’ Babar said.
However, he acknowledges “we may not have done enough” as there are no positive results to be seen. “Perhaps what is needed, now more than ever, is for all the political forces to join hands and pressure the government to get our citizens back.” —Dawn/IPS News Service
Monday, January 28, 2008
PPP delegates return from US
By Ashraf Mumtaz
LAHORE, Jan 28: A three-member PPP delegation which visited the United States to seek support for its demand that the government entrust the investigation of Ms Benazir Bhutto’s assassination to the United Nations returned home on Monday ostensibly with no sign that the Bush administration will put pressure on President Musharraf to accept the PPP’s point of view.
Party sources, however, said the visit helped the PPP to put across its point of view to important people, including Congressmen they met during their three-day stay.
The visit was “pretty successful in terms of Congressional support for a UN probe as well as for elections on time,” the sources said. Information secretary Sherry Rehman led the delegation.
“They haven’t given any indication that they will support the PPP’s point of view,” the sources told Dawn.
The government said that the Scotland Yard team was competent to investigate the matter. However, the PPP sources said that its terms of reference were limited to finding the cause of death and it could not identify the perpetrators and financiers of the crime. The sources said that it was premature to say whether the party would accept the findings of the Scotland Yard team.
LAHORE, Jan 28: A three-member PPP delegation which visited the United States to seek support for its demand that the government entrust the investigation of Ms Benazir Bhutto’s assassination to the United Nations returned home on Monday ostensibly with no sign that the Bush administration will put pressure on President Musharraf to accept the PPP’s point of view.
Party sources, however, said the visit helped the PPP to put across its point of view to important people, including Congressmen they met during their three-day stay.
The visit was “pretty successful in terms of Congressional support for a UN probe as well as for elections on time,” the sources said. Information secretary Sherry Rehman led the delegation.
“They haven’t given any indication that they will support the PPP’s point of view,” the sources told Dawn.
The government said that the Scotland Yard team was competent to investigate the matter. However, the PPP sources said that its terms of reference were limited to finding the cause of death and it could not identify the perpetrators and financiers of the crime. The sources said that it was premature to say whether the party would accept the findings of the Scotland Yard team.
British team to return next month
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Scotland Yard team investigating the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be returning to the country some time next month and not on January 27 as announced by the government.
The reason behind the delay could not be ascertained and the British High Commission claimed that there was no schedule for the investigators’ return.
“The Scotland Yard team is not coming back in the next three days,” the high commission’s Press Secretary Aidan Liddle told Dawn.
When it was pointed out that Pakistan’s interior ministry had announced that the team would return on January 27, the official said: “There was no such schedule of their return.”
On the other hand caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz said: “We were expecting the arrival of British investigators some time between January 26 and January 27, but we do not know the reason behind the delay.”
Asked whether the foreign investigators would submit their investigation report immediately after their return to the country or would do some more investigation, the minister said: “It would be up to them whether they submit the report at their return or take more time for this.”
Eight experts of the Scotland Yard have been probing the case and five forensic experts, after collecting evidences, had left the country in the second week of this month, while the other three flew back later.
The team arrived in Islamabad on January 4 and started the investigation on January 6.
The government had announced that in the light of the evidence gathered by the investigators and statements they had recorded, they would prepare a report in the UK determining the cause of death and present it to the government of Pakistan on their return.
However, analysts said the investigators had been facing difficulty due to lack of evidence. They said that police had not cordoned off the site of assassination, rather they had hosed it down the day Ms Bhutto had been murdered, erasing valuable evidences.
Another problem for the investigators was that a post-mortem of the body had not been conducted.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Scotland Yard team investigating the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be returning to the country some time next month and not on January 27 as announced by the government.
The reason behind the delay could not be ascertained and the British High Commission claimed that there was no schedule for the investigators’ return.
“The Scotland Yard team is not coming back in the next three days,” the high commission’s Press Secretary Aidan Liddle told Dawn.
When it was pointed out that Pakistan’s interior ministry had announced that the team would return on January 27, the official said: “There was no such schedule of their return.”
On the other hand caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz said: “We were expecting the arrival of British investigators some time between January 26 and January 27, but we do not know the reason behind the delay.”
Asked whether the foreign investigators would submit their investigation report immediately after their return to the country or would do some more investigation, the minister said: “It would be up to them whether they submit the report at their return or take more time for this.”
Eight experts of the Scotland Yard have been probing the case and five forensic experts, after collecting evidences, had left the country in the second week of this month, while the other three flew back later.
The team arrived in Islamabad on January 4 and started the investigation on January 6.
The government had announced that in the light of the evidence gathered by the investigators and statements they had recorded, they would prepare a report in the UK determining the cause of death and present it to the government of Pakistan on their return.
However, analysts said the investigators had been facing difficulty due to lack of evidence. They said that police had not cordoned off the site of assassination, rather they had hosed it down the day Ms Bhutto had been murdered, erasing valuable evidences.
Another problem for the investigators was that a post-mortem of the body had not been conducted.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Scotland Yard team ‘free’ to conduct full probe
By Syed Irfan Raza and Mohammad Asghar
ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI, Jan 23: Despite limited evidences, short investigation time and a mandate to determine only the cause of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s death, given to the Scotland Yard team, the government is reported to be trying to put the responsibility of complete investigation of the case on the British team.
Now the government is giving an impression that the foreign experts who have retuned to the UK with whatever evidences were available can investigate the case from all angles to unveil the persons involved in Ms Bhutto’s murder. However, the earlier stance of the government was that the British experts could only determine the cause of her death.
“The Scotland Yard team which is coming back to Pakistan on Jan 27 will be free to investigate the case,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema told Dawn on Wednesday.
However, according to the working arrangements agreed between Pakistan and the UK, the Scotland Yard team could assist local investigators in the case to ‘know the cause of her death’. The primacy and responsibility for the investigation remains with Pakistani authorities.
Now when the British experts have been asked to submit their report before forthcoming general elections, the interior ministry spokesman said: “The British investigators were not confined to only determine the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and it depends on them to also investigate the case and unveil the persons involved in the assassination.”
However, analysts were of the view that due to lack of solid evidences the Scotland Yard team would come up with no conclusion as it would have to rely on what the local investigators would tell them.
They said the British investigators had been facing difficulty in probing the case due to lack of evidence. They said police had not cordoned off the place of assassination rather they had washed it on the day of Ms Bhutto’s murder, resulting in the loss of all available evidences there.
Another difficulty the foreign detectives have been facing is that post-mortem of Ms Bhutto had not been conducted. The government had made an offer to her family to exhume her body for autopsy but the family seems to be reluctant.
The interior ministry spokesman said in his weekly press briefing on Tuesday that the Scotland Yard team would be allowed to interrogate two arrested terrorists allegedly involved in Ms Bhutto’s murder.
But, on the other hand the government made its own credibility ‘quite controversial’ by categorically rejecting a demand of the deceased chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and after her death of other leaders of the party regarding nomination of four important persons in the former government in the assassination case.
Sources in the interior ministry said the government had given very ‘short’ time to the foreign experts to determine the cause of death or investigate the case because they had been asked to complete the probe before coming elections scheduled for February 18.
“Yes we have asked them to complete the investigation before holding of the elections,” caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz has said. “It would be better for all if they complete the probe before the polls,” he added.
A total of eight experts of Scotland Yard have been probing the case and five forensic experts, after collecting evidences, had left Pakistan in the second week of this month while the other three flew back on Jan 16.
Four members of the Scotland Yard team will return to Pakistan on Jan 27.
The sources said the Scotland Yard team would interrogate 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah, one of the two suspects allegedly connected with the assassination plot. He is being kept in a high security lock-up and interrogated exclusively by CID officers.
The source said CID officials were likely to record statements of Rawalpindi police officers and scrutinise the security plan for Dec 27.
The Scotland Yard’s team had gone back to the UK, leaving behind two liaison officers in Islamabad. The four returning investigators are expected to bring back some vital piece of evidence.
The sources said that the British investigators would again recreate the crime scene outside the Liaquat Bagh to help in their investigations.
Aitzaz Shah and his militant ‘handler’ Sher Zaman were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan last week.
ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI, Jan 23: Despite limited evidences, short investigation time and a mandate to determine only the cause of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s death, given to the Scotland Yard team, the government is reported to be trying to put the responsibility of complete investigation of the case on the British team.
Now the government is giving an impression that the foreign experts who have retuned to the UK with whatever evidences were available can investigate the case from all angles to unveil the persons involved in Ms Bhutto’s murder. However, the earlier stance of the government was that the British experts could only determine the cause of her death.
“The Scotland Yard team which is coming back to Pakistan on Jan 27 will be free to investigate the case,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema told Dawn on Wednesday.
However, according to the working arrangements agreed between Pakistan and the UK, the Scotland Yard team could assist local investigators in the case to ‘know the cause of her death’. The primacy and responsibility for the investigation remains with Pakistani authorities.
Now when the British experts have been asked to submit their report before forthcoming general elections, the interior ministry spokesman said: “The British investigators were not confined to only determine the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and it depends on them to also investigate the case and unveil the persons involved in the assassination.”
However, analysts were of the view that due to lack of solid evidences the Scotland Yard team would come up with no conclusion as it would have to rely on what the local investigators would tell them.
They said the British investigators had been facing difficulty in probing the case due to lack of evidence. They said police had not cordoned off the place of assassination rather they had washed it on the day of Ms Bhutto’s murder, resulting in the loss of all available evidences there.
Another difficulty the foreign detectives have been facing is that post-mortem of Ms Bhutto had not been conducted. The government had made an offer to her family to exhume her body for autopsy but the family seems to be reluctant.
The interior ministry spokesman said in his weekly press briefing on Tuesday that the Scotland Yard team would be allowed to interrogate two arrested terrorists allegedly involved in Ms Bhutto’s murder.
But, on the other hand the government made its own credibility ‘quite controversial’ by categorically rejecting a demand of the deceased chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and after her death of other leaders of the party regarding nomination of four important persons in the former government in the assassination case.
Sources in the interior ministry said the government had given very ‘short’ time to the foreign experts to determine the cause of death or investigate the case because they had been asked to complete the probe before coming elections scheduled for February 18.
“Yes we have asked them to complete the investigation before holding of the elections,” caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz has said. “It would be better for all if they complete the probe before the polls,” he added.
A total of eight experts of Scotland Yard have been probing the case and five forensic experts, after collecting evidences, had left Pakistan in the second week of this month while the other three flew back on Jan 16.
Four members of the Scotland Yard team will return to Pakistan on Jan 27.
The sources said the Scotland Yard team would interrogate 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah, one of the two suspects allegedly connected with the assassination plot. He is being kept in a high security lock-up and interrogated exclusively by CID officers.
The source said CID officials were likely to record statements of Rawalpindi police officers and scrutinise the security plan for Dec 27.
The Scotland Yard’s team had gone back to the UK, leaving behind two liaison officers in Islamabad. The four returning investigators are expected to bring back some vital piece of evidence.
The sources said that the British investigators would again recreate the crime scene outside the Liaquat Bagh to help in their investigations.
Aitzaz Shah and his militant ‘handler’ Sher Zaman were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan last week.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Scotland Yard to be allowed to quiz suspects: Cheema
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The Scotland Yard team investigating into the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto would be allowed to interrogate the suspected teenager and his partner allegedly involved in the assassination plot, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Tuesday.
“If they (Scotland Yard team) require, the government would facilitate them to quiz Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman,” Mr Cheema said.
The British team has gone home, but is expected to return in a few days and present its final report.
He said that the findings of the team would be made public soon after the report was submitted to the government.
He said the 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah and his militant ‘handler’ had been arrested in Dera Ismail Khan last week and Shah had told interrogators he was next in line to kill former prime minister had the other assassins failed.
“We have arrested them and recovered some explosives, some vests used for suicide bombing and detonators from the possession of the suspects,” Mr Cheema said.
“The suspect has made some revelations with regard to the assassination of Ms Bhutto,” the spokesman said.
He said that the boy’s information had led investigators to arrest his accomplice Sher Zaman.
Responding to a question about any link between Baitullah Mehsud and the suspects, the official said that investigators had not released any such information in this regard.
Answering a question about the inclusion in the probe of the people mentioned in a letter written by Ms Bhutto to the president before her return to the country from exile, the spokesman said: “It is unacceptable because they had been nominated six months before her assassination.”
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The Scotland Yard team investigating into the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto would be allowed to interrogate the suspected teenager and his partner allegedly involved in the assassination plot, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Tuesday.
“If they (Scotland Yard team) require, the government would facilitate them to quiz Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman,” Mr Cheema said.
The British team has gone home, but is expected to return in a few days and present its final report.
He said that the findings of the team would be made public soon after the report was submitted to the government.
He said the 15-year-old Aitzaz Shah and his militant ‘handler’ had been arrested in Dera Ismail Khan last week and Shah had told interrogators he was next in line to kill former prime minister had the other assassins failed.
“We have arrested them and recovered some explosives, some vests used for suicide bombing and detonators from the possession of the suspects,” Mr Cheema said.
“The suspect has made some revelations with regard to the assassination of Ms Bhutto,” the spokesman said.
He said that the boy’s information had led investigators to arrest his accomplice Sher Zaman.
Responding to a question about any link between Baitullah Mehsud and the suspects, the official said that investigators had not released any such information in this regard.
Answering a question about the inclusion in the probe of the people mentioned in a letter written by Ms Bhutto to the president before her return to the country from exile, the spokesman said: “It is unacceptable because they had been nominated six months before her assassination.”
Monday, January 21, 2008
Mumtaz questions CIA’s ‘findings’
LARKANA, Jan 21: The Sindh National Front chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto said on Monday that there was no concrete evidence in the ‘findings’ of the American CIA that Al Qaeda and Baintullah Mehsood were responsible for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Talking to visitors in his native village Mirpur Bhutto in the Larkana district, Mr Bhutto termed the accusations a part of ‘American war against Muslims’.
“Since, Benazir called herself as Bhutto even after marriage, her assassination is the murder of a member of the Bhutto family, therefore the Bhutto community would follow the entire process of probe and would not allow any other person to get any personal or political mileage from it,” he said.
“We would approach the rulers and demand to take us into confidence about the probe into assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” Mr Bhutto said.
Mumtaz Bhutto contended that Benazir Bhutto was trapped in such a situation that a number of notorious criminals had come very close to her. “Who developed such a situation and how? This is very important question,’’ he said.—PPI
Talking to visitors in his native village Mirpur Bhutto in the Larkana district, Mr Bhutto termed the accusations a part of ‘American war against Muslims’.
“Since, Benazir called herself as Bhutto even after marriage, her assassination is the murder of a member of the Bhutto family, therefore the Bhutto community would follow the entire process of probe and would not allow any other person to get any personal or political mileage from it,” he said.
“We would approach the rulers and demand to take us into confidence about the probe into assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” Mr Bhutto said.
Mumtaz Bhutto contended that Benazir Bhutto was trapped in such a situation that a number of notorious criminals had come very close to her. “Who developed such a situation and how? This is very important question,’’ he said.—PPI
Sunday, January 20, 2008
CIA has evidence of Al Qaeda hand: paper
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan 19: The CIA chief’s claim that Baitullah Mahsud directed the attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is based on “powerful” evidence the agency has collected, two major US newspapers reported on Saturday.
The New York Times also reported that the Bush administration is currently considering proposals to step up covert actions against the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan’s tribal region.
The report identified Mahsud as “a militant tribal leader in hiding” and noted that he has ties to Al Qaeda as well.
“There are powerful reasons to believe that terror networks around Baitullah Mahsud were responsible,” an American intelligence official told NYT.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, the official said that “different pieces of information” had pointed toward Mahsud’s responsibility.
CIA Director Michael J. Hayden discussed the agency’s conclusion in an interview with The Washington Post published on Friday.
On Saturday, NYT did its own story on Mr Hayden’s claim, noting that independent security analysts believe the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan is increasingly made up of “home-grown militants” who have made destabilising the government a top priority.
The report also referred to recent media statements by American intelligence officials saying that Al Qaeda has steadily built a safe haven in the mountainous tribal region Pakistan, constructing a band of makeshift compounds where both Pakistani militants and foreign fighters conduct training and planning for terrorist attacks.
The newspaper pointed out that Al Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan’s tribal areas is causing “mounting frustration” among American intelligence and counterterrorism officials, many of whom believe that the United States should take more aggressive unilateral steps to dismantle terrorist networks in this region.
In a separate report, The Los Angeles Times also quoted senior CIA officials as telling its reporters in Washington that Baitullah Mahsud was behind the Bhutto assassination.
“There is certainly no reason to doubt that Mahsud was behind this,” one such official told the newspaper.
The report, however, noted that Mahsud has denied involvement in the attack on Bhutto on Dec 27 after a political rally in Rawalpindi.
The newspaper also quoted from an interview Ms Bhutto gave to Britain’s Guardian newspaper before her death, saying that though Mahsud had reportedly threatened to send suicide bombers against her if she came back to Pakistan, the real danger came from extremist elements within the government that were opposed to her return.
“I’m not worried about Mahsud, I’m worried about the threat within the government,” she said. “People like Mahsud are just pawns. It is the forces behind them that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country.”
WASHINGTON, Jan 19: The CIA chief’s claim that Baitullah Mahsud directed the attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is based on “powerful” evidence the agency has collected, two major US newspapers reported on Saturday.
The New York Times also reported that the Bush administration is currently considering proposals to step up covert actions against the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan’s tribal region.
The report identified Mahsud as “a militant tribal leader in hiding” and noted that he has ties to Al Qaeda as well.
“There are powerful reasons to believe that terror networks around Baitullah Mahsud were responsible,” an American intelligence official told NYT.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, the official said that “different pieces of information” had pointed toward Mahsud’s responsibility.
CIA Director Michael J. Hayden discussed the agency’s conclusion in an interview with The Washington Post published on Friday.
On Saturday, NYT did its own story on Mr Hayden’s claim, noting that independent security analysts believe the Al Qaeda network in Pakistan is increasingly made up of “home-grown militants” who have made destabilising the government a top priority.
The report also referred to recent media statements by American intelligence officials saying that Al Qaeda has steadily built a safe haven in the mountainous tribal region Pakistan, constructing a band of makeshift compounds where both Pakistani militants and foreign fighters conduct training and planning for terrorist attacks.
The newspaper pointed out that Al Qaeda’s presence in Pakistan’s tribal areas is causing “mounting frustration” among American intelligence and counterterrorism officials, many of whom believe that the United States should take more aggressive unilateral steps to dismantle terrorist networks in this region.
In a separate report, The Los Angeles Times also quoted senior CIA officials as telling its reporters in Washington that Baitullah Mahsud was behind the Bhutto assassination.
“There is certainly no reason to doubt that Mahsud was behind this,” one such official told the newspaper.
The report, however, noted that Mahsud has denied involvement in the attack on Bhutto on Dec 27 after a political rally in Rawalpindi.
The newspaper also quoted from an interview Ms Bhutto gave to Britain’s Guardian newspaper before her death, saying that though Mahsud had reportedly threatened to send suicide bombers against her if she came back to Pakistan, the real danger came from extremist elements within the government that were opposed to her return.
“I’m not worried about Mahsud, I’m worried about the threat within the government,” she said. “People like Mahsud are just pawns. It is the forces behind them that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country.”
Boy, key suspect held in BB murder plot
By Irfan Mughal
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Jan 19: A teenaged boy arrested on Friday told investigators he was the next in line to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had the Dec 27 attempt failed, a security official told Dawn on Saturday.
“He appears to be part of the group that had planned the assassination, but not directly involved in it,” the official said in Peshawar.
The 18-year-old Aitzaz Shah, a native of Battal, in Mansehra district, used to live and study in Karachi. Aitzaz, according to the security official, also told the interrogators that he had been recruited by a cleric in Karachi and was sent to South Waziristan to train as a suicide bomber.
He said that he had trained in Makeen, South Waziristan, and knew about the group that had planned the assassination.
Aitzaz, who was arrested along with another man identified as Sher Zaman, was said to be cooperating with his interrogators.
The official said that the real catch was Sher Zaman, who was Aitzaz’s handler. “He is the real catch.”
A police official said that Aitzaz had even identified as Bilal the man who had executed the plot and then blew himself up. Bilal was a member of the Al-Badar outfit. He claimed that he was the back-up for Bilal whose facilitator was Akram. Police are looking for Akram.
Police said that the two suspects were arrested while driving into the city in a car. On search, the police also recovered explosives. Police said that the teenager had been assigned by his handlers to target a Shia procession in the city that has seen spiral of sectarian violence in the past.
“The boy seems to be implicating militant commander, Baituallah Mehsud in Benazir’s assassination,” the official said.
He said the boy and his handler would be subjected to further interrogation to find more clues about Benazir’s murder and other terrorist acts in the country. “So far, what he has said is very sketchy but we would know more as we speak to him again,” he said.
Police refused to confirm and contradict Aitzaz’s statement and Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema told an international wire service he had no information to share.
But a spokesman for Mr. Mehsud denied Aitzaz had any link with his group. “We have denied our involvement in Benazir’s assassination before and are strongly denying this again. We are not involved in Benazir’s murder,” Maulvi Omar told Dawn in Tank near Dera Ismail Khan.
“Yesterday, the American CIA had made a similar claim and now the police claim seems to be a continuation of the same conspiracy,” he said.—Ismail Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar and Alamgir Bittani from Tank.
Aitzaz allegedly said the attackers in the team that killed Ms Bhutto were called Bilal and Ikramullah -- the same names mentioned in an alleged telephone conversation between Mehsud and another militant the day after her death, adds AFP.
The tape was released by the interior ministry.
Aitzaz’s whereabouts at the time of the attack were not immediately clear.
One security official said he was in Rawalpindi while another said he was in Waziristan.
“The suspect was not in Rawalpindi at the time of attack on Ms Bhutto. The boy told interrogators that he was in South Waziristan,” a top police official quoted him as telling the interrogators.
One of the officials said Aitzaz was arrested during a security check when he arrived in Dera Ismail Khan by taxi from North Waziristan.
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.
Instead he was ordered to launch an attack during an Ashura procession on Sunday, the officials said.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Jan 19: A teenaged boy arrested on Friday told investigators he was the next in line to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had the Dec 27 attempt failed, a security official told Dawn on Saturday.
“He appears to be part of the group that had planned the assassination, but not directly involved in it,” the official said in Peshawar.
The 18-year-old Aitzaz Shah, a native of Battal, in Mansehra district, used to live and study in Karachi. Aitzaz, according to the security official, also told the interrogators that he had been recruited by a cleric in Karachi and was sent to South Waziristan to train as a suicide bomber.
He said that he had trained in Makeen, South Waziristan, and knew about the group that had planned the assassination.
Aitzaz, who was arrested along with another man identified as Sher Zaman, was said to be cooperating with his interrogators.
The official said that the real catch was Sher Zaman, who was Aitzaz’s handler. “He is the real catch.”
A police official said that Aitzaz had even identified as Bilal the man who had executed the plot and then blew himself up. Bilal was a member of the Al-Badar outfit. He claimed that he was the back-up for Bilal whose facilitator was Akram. Police are looking for Akram.
Police said that the two suspects were arrested while driving into the city in a car. On search, the police also recovered explosives. Police said that the teenager had been assigned by his handlers to target a Shia procession in the city that has seen spiral of sectarian violence in the past.
“The boy seems to be implicating militant commander, Baituallah Mehsud in Benazir’s assassination,” the official said.
He said the boy and his handler would be subjected to further interrogation to find more clues about Benazir’s murder and other terrorist acts in the country. “So far, what he has said is very sketchy but we would know more as we speak to him again,” he said.
Police refused to confirm and contradict Aitzaz’s statement and Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema told an international wire service he had no information to share.
But a spokesman for Mr. Mehsud denied Aitzaz had any link with his group. “We have denied our involvement in Benazir’s assassination before and are strongly denying this again. We are not involved in Benazir’s murder,” Maulvi Omar told Dawn in Tank near Dera Ismail Khan.
“Yesterday, the American CIA had made a similar claim and now the police claim seems to be a continuation of the same conspiracy,” he said.—Ismail Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar and Alamgir Bittani from Tank.
Aitzaz allegedly said the attackers in the team that killed Ms Bhutto were called Bilal and Ikramullah -- the same names mentioned in an alleged telephone conversation between Mehsud and another militant the day after her death, adds AFP.
The tape was released by the interior ministry.
Aitzaz’s whereabouts at the time of the attack were not immediately clear.
One security official said he was in Rawalpindi while another said he was in Waziristan.
“The suspect was not in Rawalpindi at the time of attack on Ms Bhutto. The boy told interrogators that he was in South Waziristan,” a top police official quoted him as telling the interrogators.
One of the officials said Aitzaz was arrested during a security check when he arrived in Dera Ismail Khan by taxi from North Waziristan.
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.
Instead he was ordered to launch an attack during an Ashura procession on Sunday, the officials said.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Arbab calls for probing Zardari, two guards
By Our Correspondent
MIRPURKHAS, Jan 15: Former Sindh Chief Minister and president of PML-Q, Sindh, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has urged the government to include PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Sherry Rehman as well as two bodyguards of Benazir Bhutto, Rehman Dakait and Khalid Shahenshah, in the investigation into the assassination case of Ms Bhutto, and said that there could be a number of motives behind the assassination.
He was addressing a press conference after a meeting of PML-Q candidates and office-bearers of lower Sindh at the residence of Arbab Faiz Mohammad near Naokot on Tuesday, he said the investigation should focus on people who had benefited politically and financially from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
He said that after Muharram he would resume his election campaign in Sindh and expressed the hope that his party would win with the support of coalition partners.
He said that elections would be held on schedule if no big incident occurred. He said that economic growth and progress achieved during eight years of President Pervez Musharraf had been damaged by miscreants after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Our Mithi correspondent adds: Speaking at public gathering in Virawah village near Nagarparkar, Dr Rahim has said that he and his supporters prefer the politics of patience and tolerance over the politics of revenge and believe in service to people without any discrimination.
Without naming Pakistan People’s Party, he said: “Some circles are trying to make a corpse the base of their politics to get votes and strengthen their party but what kind of politics is that.”
“One who has expired should be considered as dead and people should pin hopes on those who live,” he added.
He said: “I have not studied at Oxford but was born and educated in Thar and am aware of its culture and problems. My contribution can be gauged from the fact that … after becoming chief minister … not only I took bold stance on the issues concerning Sindh but also undertook projects of road network, electricity and water supply from canals across Thar, hence at present Thar is acknowledged as most developed party of the country.
“It is up to the Tharis to judge our performance. If they observe that we did not keep them on hollow slogans but endeavoured to redress their grievances, they should vote for PML candidates to enable us to carry on the remaining development projects,” Dr Rahim said.
Arbab Abdullah, Dr Ghulam Haider Samejo and Ram Singh Sodho also spoke on the occasion.
MIRPURKHAS, Jan 15: Former Sindh Chief Minister and president of PML-Q, Sindh, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has urged the government to include PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Sherry Rehman as well as two bodyguards of Benazir Bhutto, Rehman Dakait and Khalid Shahenshah, in the investigation into the assassination case of Ms Bhutto, and said that there could be a number of motives behind the assassination.
He was addressing a press conference after a meeting of PML-Q candidates and office-bearers of lower Sindh at the residence of Arbab Faiz Mohammad near Naokot on Tuesday, he said the investigation should focus on people who had benefited politically and financially from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
He said that after Muharram he would resume his election campaign in Sindh and expressed the hope that his party would win with the support of coalition partners.
He said that elections would be held on schedule if no big incident occurred. He said that economic growth and progress achieved during eight years of President Pervez Musharraf had been damaged by miscreants after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Our Mithi correspondent adds: Speaking at public gathering in Virawah village near Nagarparkar, Dr Rahim has said that he and his supporters prefer the politics of patience and tolerance over the politics of revenge and believe in service to people without any discrimination.
Without naming Pakistan People’s Party, he said: “Some circles are trying to make a corpse the base of their politics to get votes and strengthen their party but what kind of politics is that.”
“One who has expired should be considered as dead and people should pin hopes on those who live,” he added.
He said: “I have not studied at Oxford but was born and educated in Thar and am aware of its culture and problems. My contribution can be gauged from the fact that … after becoming chief minister … not only I took bold stance on the issues concerning Sindh but also undertook projects of road network, electricity and water supply from canals across Thar, hence at present Thar is acknowledged as most developed party of the country.
“It is up to the Tharis to judge our performance. If they observe that we did not keep them on hollow slogans but endeavoured to redress their grievances, they should vote for PML candidates to enable us to carry on the remaining development projects,” Dr Rahim said.
Arbab Abdullah, Dr Ghulam Haider Samejo and Ram Singh Sodho also spoke on the occasion.
PPP sends plea to UN today
By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, Jan 15: The Pakistan People’s Party would dispatch a long-awaited petition to the United Nations on Wednesday, requesting it to launch an investigation into the assassination of its slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto, said its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday.
Coinciding with the dispatch of the petition, said Mr Zardari, the People’s Party would be launching an international initiative under which governments other than Pakistan’s would be explained why an investigation under the auspices of the UN was needed. Delegations would be sent to several countries, asking them to persuade Islamabad to allow a UN probe.
Speaking at a press conference in the Bilawal House, he said the government’s claim that Ms Bhutto was murdered by the operatives of Al Qaeda had lent weight to the PPP’s demand for a probe by the world body.
“The regime itself has been calling it the handiwork of Al Qaeda, which is an international organisation with bases outside Pakistan. If that indeed is the case, there is all the more reason why the UN must be requested to investigate,” remarked Mr Zardari in reply to a question.
He said he already had discussions on the subject with people like former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and Asma Jehangir, who had supported his party’s stance. After Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the UN had expressed willingness to assist in the investigations, if requested by the Pakistan government.
Flanked by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Sherry Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Naveed Qamar, Nafees Siddiqui, N.D. Khan and Rashid Rabbani, Mr Zardari dwelt at length on several issues, including the reasons why the PPP wanted a UN probe, his meeting with Scotland Yard investigators, allegations of pre-poll rigging against the Musharraf government and the law and order situation obtaining in the country.
He said the PPP had been calling for a
UN investigation because it had no faith in the probe ordered by the Musharraf government. Pakistani investigators were in no position to “expose the hidden but powerful hands behind the conspiracy” to eliminate Ms Bhutto. The PPP’s co-chairman was of the view that the government’s act of inviting a Scotland Yard team to look into his wife’s murder was tantamount to admitting that any probe by Pakistani agencies was inadequate.
The PPP even questioned the terms of reference of the investigations undertaken by the Scotland Yard team, he said, because they pertained only to the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and not to the “perpetrators and organisers of the plot behind it”.
Soon after the bombing during a PPP rally in Karachi on Oct 18, the UN had called upon all nations to assist in exposing “the perpetrators, financiers, planners and organisers” of the plot, said Mr Zardari. “That resolution of the UN is also binding on Pakistan.”
Speaking of the “influential suspects” who had been mentioned in a letter from Ms Bhutto to Gen Musharraf, he said Pakistani agencies were not in a position to interrogate them. Their names would be disclosed at an appropriate time, as the probe proceeded.
The People’s Party leader also referred to Ms Bhutto’s letter to Mark Seigel a few days before her assassination, which he maintained, was her “dying declaration”. This letter too could not be taken into account by Pakistani investigators.
Answering a question about his meetings with the Scotland Yard detectives, Mr Zardari said he had to come down to Karachi to meet them because the government had not allowed the investigators to visit Naudero. He said his party had placed some material before the team of British experts.
He made it clear that he and his party members would be responding to any queries made by the Scotland Yard team. He parried a question about the British detectives’ findings, saying their probe was an ongoing one and it would be premature to disclose anything at the moment.
The PPP chief said his party would behave in a responsible manner as it had always struggled for democracy and rule of law. Benazir Bhutto believed in these values and the PPP would not let her down in any way.
“The Pakistani Gorbachevs are rubbing salt into the wounds of the people and the PPP. But we will continue to struggle and safeguard the federation despite receiving bodies of martyrs.” Mr Zardari said the present leadership of the PPP was committed to the ideals of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
He said the government was trying to deceive the people over Ms Bhutto’s post-mortem, which was not carried out for a full six hours after her death. “They didn’t need my permission during that period to conduct a post-mortem. It was incumbent upon them under the medico-legal laws to get it done.”
Mr Zardari said that when he reached Rawalpindi, about six hours after his wife’s death, the authorities sought his permission to carry out a post-mortem. “But I had decided by that time to turn down their offer.”
Asked to comment on President Musharraf’s recent remarks that Ms Bhutto was not popular in the army, the PPP co-chairman said it was not Gen Ziaul Haq’s son who won elections in Rawalpindi but the PPP’s own Zamurrad Khan.
“The PPP wins elections from every cantonment, which shows how Benazir Bhutto is respected there as PPP belongs to all Pakistanis.”
In reply to a question about polls, the PPP chief said his party would not let “the Gorbachev” avoid elections. He urged the people to turn out in large numbers on Feb 18 to cast their votes.
Mr Zardari added that the Bilawal House, Karachi, was the property of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the PPP would seek his permission to establish a museum there.
KARACHI, Jan 15: The Pakistan People’s Party would dispatch a long-awaited petition to the United Nations on Wednesday, requesting it to launch an investigation into the assassination of its slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto, said its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday.
Coinciding with the dispatch of the petition, said Mr Zardari, the People’s Party would be launching an international initiative under which governments other than Pakistan’s would be explained why an investigation under the auspices of the UN was needed. Delegations would be sent to several countries, asking them to persuade Islamabad to allow a UN probe.
Speaking at a press conference in the Bilawal House, he said the government’s claim that Ms Bhutto was murdered by the operatives of Al Qaeda had lent weight to the PPP’s demand for a probe by the world body.
“The regime itself has been calling it the handiwork of Al Qaeda, which is an international organisation with bases outside Pakistan. If that indeed is the case, there is all the more reason why the UN must be requested to investigate,” remarked Mr Zardari in reply to a question.
He said he already had discussions on the subject with people like former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and Asma Jehangir, who had supported his party’s stance. After Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the UN had expressed willingness to assist in the investigations, if requested by the Pakistan government.
Flanked by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Sherry Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Naveed Qamar, Nafees Siddiqui, N.D. Khan and Rashid Rabbani, Mr Zardari dwelt at length on several issues, including the reasons why the PPP wanted a UN probe, his meeting with Scotland Yard investigators, allegations of pre-poll rigging against the Musharraf government and the law and order situation obtaining in the country.
He said the PPP had been calling for a
UN investigation because it had no faith in the probe ordered by the Musharraf government. Pakistani investigators were in no position to “expose the hidden but powerful hands behind the conspiracy” to eliminate Ms Bhutto. The PPP’s co-chairman was of the view that the government’s act of inviting a Scotland Yard team to look into his wife’s murder was tantamount to admitting that any probe by Pakistani agencies was inadequate.
The PPP even questioned the terms of reference of the investigations undertaken by the Scotland Yard team, he said, because they pertained only to the cause of Ms Bhutto’s death and not to the “perpetrators and organisers of the plot behind it”.
Soon after the bombing during a PPP rally in Karachi on Oct 18, the UN had called upon all nations to assist in exposing “the perpetrators, financiers, planners and organisers” of the plot, said Mr Zardari. “That resolution of the UN is also binding on Pakistan.”
Speaking of the “influential suspects” who had been mentioned in a letter from Ms Bhutto to Gen Musharraf, he said Pakistani agencies were not in a position to interrogate them. Their names would be disclosed at an appropriate time, as the probe proceeded.
The People’s Party leader also referred to Ms Bhutto’s letter to Mark Seigel a few days before her assassination, which he maintained, was her “dying declaration”. This letter too could not be taken into account by Pakistani investigators.
Answering a question about his meetings with the Scotland Yard detectives, Mr Zardari said he had to come down to Karachi to meet them because the government had not allowed the investigators to visit Naudero. He said his party had placed some material before the team of British experts.
He made it clear that he and his party members would be responding to any queries made by the Scotland Yard team. He parried a question about the British detectives’ findings, saying their probe was an ongoing one and it would be premature to disclose anything at the moment.
The PPP chief said his party would behave in a responsible manner as it had always struggled for democracy and rule of law. Benazir Bhutto believed in these values and the PPP would not let her down in any way.
“The Pakistani Gorbachevs are rubbing salt into the wounds of the people and the PPP. But we will continue to struggle and safeguard the federation despite receiving bodies of martyrs.” Mr Zardari said the present leadership of the PPP was committed to the ideals of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
He said the government was trying to deceive the people over Ms Bhutto’s post-mortem, which was not carried out for a full six hours after her death. “They didn’t need my permission during that period to conduct a post-mortem. It was incumbent upon them under the medico-legal laws to get it done.”
Mr Zardari said that when he reached Rawalpindi, about six hours after his wife’s death, the authorities sought his permission to carry out a post-mortem. “But I had decided by that time to turn down their offer.”
Asked to comment on President Musharraf’s recent remarks that Ms Bhutto was not popular in the army, the PPP co-chairman said it was not Gen Ziaul Haq’s son who won elections in Rawalpindi but the PPP’s own Zamurrad Khan.
“The PPP wins elections from every cantonment, which shows how Benazir Bhutto is respected there as PPP belongs to all Pakistanis.”
In reply to a question about polls, the PPP chief said his party would not let “the Gorbachev” avoid elections. He urged the people to turn out in large numbers on Feb 18 to cast their votes.
Mr Zardari added that the Bilawal House, Karachi, was the property of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the PPP would seek his permission to establish a museum there.
Oct 18 suspects held
Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz on Tuesday claimed that the government had arrested a number of terrorists believed to be involved in the attack on PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s home-coming procession in Karachi on Oct 18.
Inaugurating the newly-constructed building of the Tarnol Police Station, the minister said the men were also behind terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi and the blowing up of an Air Force bus.
He did not comment when asked if the accused had any links with the terrorists who had assassinated the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He said the men were arrested in Mianwali and Sargodha and over 60kg explosive material had been seized.
Mr Hamid did not disclose the names of the terrorists saying that security agencies were trying to catch their accomplices.
He said that security forces would soon arrest Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and militant Swat cleric Maulana Fazalullah.
Inaugurating the newly-constructed building of the Tarnol Police Station, the minister said the men were also behind terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi and the blowing up of an Air Force bus.
He did not comment when asked if the accused had any links with the terrorists who had assassinated the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He said the men were arrested in Mianwali and Sargodha and over 60kg explosive material had been seized.
Mr Hamid did not disclose the names of the terrorists saying that security agencies were trying to catch their accomplices.
He said that security forces would soon arrest Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and militant Swat cleric Maulana Fazalullah.
Resolution in US House praises Pakistan for seeking Yard’s help
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Jan 15: A new resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday commends Pakistans decision to involve the Scotland Yard in investigating the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto but does not support her party’s demand for a UN-led inquiry.
The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the measure on Wednesday morning.
The mover, Congressman Gary Ackerman, chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The panel has jurisdiction over US policy towards Pakistan as well as all other countries located in the two regions.
PPP supporters in Washington were lobbying for a harsher resolution and wanted it to support their demand for a UN-led probe into the murder.
Since Mr Ackerman is a leading critic of the Musharraf government, the resolution had alarmed the government’s supporters in Washington as they feared that it may seek new restrictions against Islamabad.
The US Congress already has two pending resolutions on Pakistan, both strongly supporting pro-democracy forces in the country. Both the resolutions seek punitive actions against the Musharraf government for suppressing political forces and placing new restrictions on the media and the judiciary.
But the resolution, released by Mr Ackerman’s office, seeks no such restrictions. It does condemn, “in the strongest terms”, the assassination of Ms Bhutto but takes on position on contentious issues like who killed her, who should conduct the inquiry and on whether the government failed to make adequate arrangements for her security.
It “welcomes the provision of assistance by the government of the United Kingdom of expertise to the government of Pakistan in the conduct of the investigation of the attack”.
The resolution “commends the government of Pakistan for accepting such assistance and urges that government to allow experts from the United Kingdom to participate in such investigation”.
Mr Ackerman, however, said that his resolution “formally expresses to the world, the outrage and dismay of the House regarding the cruel and cowardly assassination” of Ms Bhutto. “It also expresses our unwavering support -- in the wake of this brutal attack -- for Pakistan to be restored to a full democracy.”
The resolution reaffirms the US commitment to assisting the people of Pakistan in combating terrorism, and promoting a free and democratic Pakistan.
It also supports efforts by the government of Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice those responsible for the assassination and expresses condolences to the Bhutto family and the families of all those who were killed or injured in the attack.
In addition, the resolution urges the people and government of Pakistan to be relentless in their pursuit of a democratically-elected government, including the holding of free and fair elections at the earliest possible opportunity.
Further, the measure expresses support for the freedom of the media, the ability of political parties to express their views without restriction and the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan.
In the wake of Ms Bhutto’s assassination and the continuing unrest in Pakistan, Mr Ackerman has scheduled a Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, entitled “US-Pakistan Relations: Assassination, Instability and the Future of US Policy”.
The hearing will focus on Americas future relations with Pakistan in the wake of Ms Bhutto’s assassination and the prospects for a return to political stability. In addition, the hearing will examine US assistance to Pakistan.
WASHINGTON, Jan 15: A new resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday commends Pakistans decision to involve the Scotland Yard in investigating the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto but does not support her party’s demand for a UN-led inquiry.
The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the measure on Wednesday morning.
The mover, Congressman Gary Ackerman, chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The panel has jurisdiction over US policy towards Pakistan as well as all other countries located in the two regions.
PPP supporters in Washington were lobbying for a harsher resolution and wanted it to support their demand for a UN-led probe into the murder.
Since Mr Ackerman is a leading critic of the Musharraf government, the resolution had alarmed the government’s supporters in Washington as they feared that it may seek new restrictions against Islamabad.
The US Congress already has two pending resolutions on Pakistan, both strongly supporting pro-democracy forces in the country. Both the resolutions seek punitive actions against the Musharraf government for suppressing political forces and placing new restrictions on the media and the judiciary.
But the resolution, released by Mr Ackerman’s office, seeks no such restrictions. It does condemn, “in the strongest terms”, the assassination of Ms Bhutto but takes on position on contentious issues like who killed her, who should conduct the inquiry and on whether the government failed to make adequate arrangements for her security.
It “welcomes the provision of assistance by the government of the United Kingdom of expertise to the government of Pakistan in the conduct of the investigation of the attack”.
The resolution “commends the government of Pakistan for accepting such assistance and urges that government to allow experts from the United Kingdom to participate in such investigation”.
Mr Ackerman, however, said that his resolution “formally expresses to the world, the outrage and dismay of the House regarding the cruel and cowardly assassination” of Ms Bhutto. “It also expresses our unwavering support -- in the wake of this brutal attack -- for Pakistan to be restored to a full democracy.”
The resolution reaffirms the US commitment to assisting the people of Pakistan in combating terrorism, and promoting a free and democratic Pakistan.
It also supports efforts by the government of Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice those responsible for the assassination and expresses condolences to the Bhutto family and the families of all those who were killed or injured in the attack.
In addition, the resolution urges the people and government of Pakistan to be relentless in their pursuit of a democratically-elected government, including the holding of free and fair elections at the earliest possible opportunity.
Further, the measure expresses support for the freedom of the media, the ability of political parties to express their views without restriction and the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan.
In the wake of Ms Bhutto’s assassination and the continuing unrest in Pakistan, Mr Ackerman has scheduled a Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, entitled “US-Pakistan Relations: Assassination, Instability and the Future of US Policy”.
The hearing will focus on Americas future relations with Pakistan in the wake of Ms Bhutto’s assassination and the prospects for a return to political stability. In addition, the hearing will examine US assistance to Pakistan.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Zardari in Karachi to meet UK investigators
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 14: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari made a surprise visit to the metropolis on Monday evening to meet the Scotland Yard team and the British High Commissioner.
PPP Central Information Secretary Sherry Rehman rejected rumours about a meeting between Mr Zardari and President Musharraf as ‘disinformation and baseless speculation’.
Ms Rehman said Mr Zardari was visiting Karachi to meet the British High Commissioner and members of the Scotland Yard team conducting an investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning. British officials had not been granted permission and security clearance by the Pakistan government to travel to Naudero.
Ms Rehman said her party remained committed to its demand for a wider international probe into the events that led to the December 27 tragedy and continued to seek a UN-led inquiry to find out the sponsors, organisers, financiers and perpetrators behind the murder of its chairperson.
“Benazir Bhutto was a leader of international stature. Her assassination represents an attack on the stability and federal structure of Pakistan. It represents an attack on the politics of peace and democracy for the entire region, and the forces that conspired to kill her are the same forces that seek the destruction of Pakistan, which poses a clear and present danger for the region.
“The party will use all its resources to seek the UN-led independent international probe into this heinous act of terrorism and bring the culprits, as well as the hidden hands behind it, to justice,” she said.
KARACHI, Jan 14: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari made a surprise visit to the metropolis on Monday evening to meet the Scotland Yard team and the British High Commissioner.
PPP Central Information Secretary Sherry Rehman rejected rumours about a meeting between Mr Zardari and President Musharraf as ‘disinformation and baseless speculation’.
Ms Rehman said Mr Zardari was visiting Karachi to meet the British High Commissioner and members of the Scotland Yard team conducting an investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning. British officials had not been granted permission and security clearance by the Pakistan government to travel to Naudero.
Ms Rehman said her party remained committed to its demand for a wider international probe into the events that led to the December 27 tragedy and continued to seek a UN-led inquiry to find out the sponsors, organisers, financiers and perpetrators behind the murder of its chairperson.
“Benazir Bhutto was a leader of international stature. Her assassination represents an attack on the stability and federal structure of Pakistan. It represents an attack on the politics of peace and democracy for the entire region, and the forces that conspired to kill her are the same forces that seek the destruction of Pakistan, which poses a clear and present danger for the region.
“The party will use all its resources to seek the UN-led independent international probe into this heinous act of terrorism and bring the culprits, as well as the hidden hands behind it, to justice,” she said.
Six UK experts leave to analyse evidence
By Mohammad Asghar
RAWALPINDI, Jan 14: Six investigators of the Scotland Yard team helping the local authorities in investigation into the assassination of Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto left for the United Kingdom on Monday to analyse evidence collected so far, official sources said.
“They have gone back to the UK to analyse whatever they have collected from here and are expected back on Jan 27,” the sources said.
Four members of the team who have stayed here will resume their work after a day’s break on Wednesday.
The investigators took to the UK with them samples of human tissues, evidence collected from the site of the blast and brain matter from Ms Bhutto’s car. They will analyse the material collected from the car.
“The investigators had sent some of the samples through
courier service while they took the remaining material with them,” the source said. “They will reconstruct the crime scene in three dimensions and analyse it.”
Two Scotland Yard investigators went to the Combined Military Hospital and met Deputy Superintendent of Police Ishtiaq Hussain Shah, who was wounded during the gun and suicide bomb attack on Ms Bhutto on Dec 27.
The investigators stayed with the police official for nearly one hour. Later they went to the pathology laboratory and examined some body parts believed to be of the suicide bomber.
On Sunday, the investigators had visited the site of the attack and two government hospitals -- one where Ms Bhutto had been taken and the other where the remaining injured were treated.
During their visit to Liaquat Bagh, the investigators installed electronic devices on rooftops within a radius of 200 metres from the site, taking photographs.
The team examined the parking area where Ms Bhutto’s vehicle had come under attack.
In the Rawalpindi General Hospital, two of the experts were taken to the emergency section and the operation theatre.
Sources in the hospital said the foreign experts talked to the radiologists who had taken Ms Bhutto’s X-rays. An investigator also talked with other hospital staff.
The foreign experts asked questions regarding the timing of X-rays, the sources said.
“The atmosphere in the operation theatre was quite different from Dec 27 as several things have been changed,” the sources claimed.
A forensics expert went to the District Headquarters Hospital and examined two human legs – a pair of sandals and two socks believed to be of the suicide bomber.
The forensic expert took tissue samples from the legs and some photographs.
A police official told the expert he believed that the same type of sandals had been found in two earlier suicide bombings.
RAWALPINDI, Jan 14: Six investigators of the Scotland Yard team helping the local authorities in investigation into the assassination of Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto left for the United Kingdom on Monday to analyse evidence collected so far, official sources said.
“They have gone back to the UK to analyse whatever they have collected from here and are expected back on Jan 27,” the sources said.
Four members of the team who have stayed here will resume their work after a day’s break on Wednesday.
The investigators took to the UK with them samples of human tissues, evidence collected from the site of the blast and brain matter from Ms Bhutto’s car. They will analyse the material collected from the car.
“The investigators had sent some of the samples through
courier service while they took the remaining material with them,” the source said. “They will reconstruct the crime scene in three dimensions and analyse it.”
Two Scotland Yard investigators went to the Combined Military Hospital and met Deputy Superintendent of Police Ishtiaq Hussain Shah, who was wounded during the gun and suicide bomb attack on Ms Bhutto on Dec 27.
The investigators stayed with the police official for nearly one hour. Later they went to the pathology laboratory and examined some body parts believed to be of the suicide bomber.
On Sunday, the investigators had visited the site of the attack and two government hospitals -- one where Ms Bhutto had been taken and the other where the remaining injured were treated.
During their visit to Liaquat Bagh, the investigators installed electronic devices on rooftops within a radius of 200 metres from the site, taking photographs.
The team examined the parking area where Ms Bhutto’s vehicle had come under attack.
In the Rawalpindi General Hospital, two of the experts were taken to the emergency section and the operation theatre.
Sources in the hospital said the foreign experts talked to the radiologists who had taken Ms Bhutto’s X-rays. An investigator also talked with other hospital staff.
The foreign experts asked questions regarding the timing of X-rays, the sources said.
“The atmosphere in the operation theatre was quite different from Dec 27 as several things have been changed,” the sources claimed.
A forensics expert went to the District Headquarters Hospital and examined two human legs – a pair of sandals and two socks believed to be of the suicide bomber.
The forensic expert took tissue samples from the legs and some photographs.
A police official told the expert he believed that the same type of sandals had been found in two earlier suicide bombings.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
KARACHI: Sniffer dogs not used for VIP security: Oct 18 security lapse
By Imran Ayub
KARACHI, Jan 13: The law enforcement agencies responsible for the security of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession on Oct 18 did not use sniffer dogs in their attempt to keep suicide bombers at bay, it has emerged.
Facts gathered from senior police officers, Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) personnel and Pakistan Rangers suggest that the authorities only used conventional methods to comb Sharea Faisal ahead of the procession of the former premier, which had never been effective to eliminate suicide bomb threats, which were warned of by the federal and provincial home ministries on Ms Bhutto’s return.
“Actually the BDS squad was there on Sharea Faisal to give clearance before the procession passed that area,” said an official on condition of anonymity. “The Karsaz area was also cleared by the BDS but the suicide bombers might have been on the move to avoid the BDS checks.”
However, he agreed that the sniffer dogs could have been the best tool to detect moving explosives, and in the procession like Oct 18’s, they could have proved more effective.
But, he added, the police did not have a single such animal despite rising threats of suicide bombings.
“Neither did police seek Rangers’ services, which have some eight such trained dogs capable of detecting explosives of any kind and in any form,” said the official. “The clearance for the bomb or explosive threats was the sole responsibility of police’s BDS, which was not capable of clearing each and every person in the moving procession, but trained sniffer dogs could operate in situations like those.”
The official’s comments matched a statement given by a senior officer of the Special Branch that the department had no equipment to detect suicide bombers in the crowd.
Before a tribunal investigating the Oct 18 Karsaz blasts, SSP Security Shahab Mazhar Bhalli said the BDS teams were not equipped with special instruments to detect humans carrying explosives.
Since the suicide bombing is considered as one of the most dangerous and unpreventable methods used by the terrorists for their targets, experts believe the current BDS setup being run under the Special Branch does not have the capacity to detect moving explosives.
“In huge processions and gatherings, effectiveness of trained sniffer dogs cannot be matched with other devices,” said a Rangers official. “Currently, in Karachi we have eight such dogs, which we use to clear Thar Express trains, processions of different kinds, international cricket matches, and on requests of different government organizations.”
However, he said, Rangers were not asked for the job on Oct 18, as they were only assigned the job of airport security, which they managed very well.
“We also use the dogs for VIP security and during visits of foreign sport teams to Karachi for sporting events,” he further explained, and disclosed that the level of protocol offered to the former premier was much below the VIP security merited.
He said the dogs could not only spot a human being carrying explosives in the crowd, but also had the ability to detect such devices five feet under the ground.
In such a situation, the question arises why the facility of sniffer dogs had not been acquired by police despite the threats and growing incidents of terrorism, including suicide bombings.
The question remained unanswered as no relevant official of police’ Special Branch could be contacted to seek an explanation despite several attempts. However, sources maintained that the department had taken several such initiatives in the past, but the red tape scuttled them.
“Recently there was a proposal to acquire such a facility (trained sniffer dogs) and a team of senior police officers kept liaison with Rangers officials for some time in this regard, but it came to an end without achieving any results,” said a source close to the top police hierarchy.
KARACHI, Jan 13: The law enforcement agencies responsible for the security of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession on Oct 18 did not use sniffer dogs in their attempt to keep suicide bombers at bay, it has emerged.
Facts gathered from senior police officers, Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) personnel and Pakistan Rangers suggest that the authorities only used conventional methods to comb Sharea Faisal ahead of the procession of the former premier, which had never been effective to eliminate suicide bomb threats, which were warned of by the federal and provincial home ministries on Ms Bhutto’s return.
“Actually the BDS squad was there on Sharea Faisal to give clearance before the procession passed that area,” said an official on condition of anonymity. “The Karsaz area was also cleared by the BDS but the suicide bombers might have been on the move to avoid the BDS checks.”
However, he agreed that the sniffer dogs could have been the best tool to detect moving explosives, and in the procession like Oct 18’s, they could have proved more effective.
But, he added, the police did not have a single such animal despite rising threats of suicide bombings.
“Neither did police seek Rangers’ services, which have some eight such trained dogs capable of detecting explosives of any kind and in any form,” said the official. “The clearance for the bomb or explosive threats was the sole responsibility of police’s BDS, which was not capable of clearing each and every person in the moving procession, but trained sniffer dogs could operate in situations like those.”
The official’s comments matched a statement given by a senior officer of the Special Branch that the department had no equipment to detect suicide bombers in the crowd.
Before a tribunal investigating the Oct 18 Karsaz blasts, SSP Security Shahab Mazhar Bhalli said the BDS teams were not equipped with special instruments to detect humans carrying explosives.
Since the suicide bombing is considered as one of the most dangerous and unpreventable methods used by the terrorists for their targets, experts believe the current BDS setup being run under the Special Branch does not have the capacity to detect moving explosives.
“In huge processions and gatherings, effectiveness of trained sniffer dogs cannot be matched with other devices,” said a Rangers official. “Currently, in Karachi we have eight such dogs, which we use to clear Thar Express trains, processions of different kinds, international cricket matches, and on requests of different government organizations.”
However, he said, Rangers were not asked for the job on Oct 18, as they were only assigned the job of airport security, which they managed very well.
“We also use the dogs for VIP security and during visits of foreign sport teams to Karachi for sporting events,” he further explained, and disclosed that the level of protocol offered to the former premier was much below the VIP security merited.
He said the dogs could not only spot a human being carrying explosives in the crowd, but also had the ability to detect such devices five feet under the ground.
In such a situation, the question arises why the facility of sniffer dogs had not been acquired by police despite the threats and growing incidents of terrorism, including suicide bombings.
The question remained unanswered as no relevant official of police’ Special Branch could be contacted to seek an explanation despite several attempts. However, sources maintained that the department had taken several such initiatives in the past, but the red tape scuttled them.
“Recently there was a proposal to acquire such a facility (trained sniffer dogs) and a team of senior police officers kept liaison with Rangers officials for some time in this regard, but it came to an end without achieving any results,” said a source close to the top police hierarchy.
Al Qaeda assassinated Benazir: report
By Our Special Correspondent
LONDON, Jan 13: Evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Sunday Times said quoting British officials.
But the ST report also quoted Scotland Yard insisting that its task was 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,” said the author of the report Christina Lamb.
Ms Lamb recalled that Musharraf’s interior ministry had 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,” said the ST report.
However, according to the same report, 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.
LONDON, Jan 13: Evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Sunday Times said quoting British officials.
But the ST report also quoted Scotland Yard insisting that its task was 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,” said the author of the report Christina Lamb.
Ms Lamb recalled that Musharraf’s interior ministry had 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,” said the ST report.
However, according to the same report, 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.
President suggests exhumation
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan 13: President Pervez Musharraf has said that the body of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto should be exhumed to settle the dispute once and for all whether she was killed by a bullet or not.
“Yes, exhume it. A hundred percent. I would like it to be exhumed,” he said. “Because I know for sure there is no bullet wound other than on the right side. Whether it was a bullet or a strike, I don’t want to comment, I don’t know.”
In an interview with Newsweek published on the Internet on Sunday, Mr Musharraf said he was aware of the accusation that the government was complicit in her assassination and wanted a post-mortem to prove that all such allegations were wrong.
When asked whether he thought BB’s wounds had been caused by bullets, the president said: “I am a soldier. I’ve seen a lot of bullet wounds. A bullet wound is a small hole, and if the bullet goes through it makes a big hole on the other side. Now that is what I understand to be a bullet wound. This was not that, although I’m not an expert.”
Mr Musharraf said those blaming the government were not interested in knowing the facts. “How does it absolve the government if it was a bullet or not?” he asked. “If you or anyone else were to accuse the government, the issue of the bullet [versus] explosives is not significant. The media and everyone are involved in an issue that is not very pertinent. Why would we be hiding [the cause of death]? It’s ridiculous, and when I read these comments, I laugh at them.”
But he ruled out ordering a post-mortem without the consent of the Bhutto 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 (Ms Bhutto’s) people agreed. But they will not.”
Asked if Ms Bhutto’s husband was playing a political game, Mr Musharraf said everybody was trying to gain political advantage from the assassination. “The entire opposition is trying to take political advantage,” he said. “I know what [Bhutto’s opponents] used to say about her, but all of a sudden ... it makes me laugh, actually.”
WASHINGTON, Jan 13: President Pervez Musharraf has said that the body of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto should be exhumed to settle the dispute once and for all whether she was killed by a bullet or not.
“Yes, exhume it. A hundred percent. I would like it to be exhumed,” he said. “Because I know for sure there is no bullet wound other than on the right side. Whether it was a bullet or a strike, I don’t want to comment, I don’t know.”
In an interview with Newsweek published on the Internet on Sunday, Mr Musharraf said he was aware of the accusation that the government was complicit in her assassination and wanted a post-mortem to prove that all such allegations were wrong.
When asked whether he thought BB’s wounds had been caused by bullets, the president said: “I am a soldier. I’ve seen a lot of bullet wounds. A bullet wound is a small hole, and if the bullet goes through it makes a big hole on the other side. Now that is what I understand to be a bullet wound. This was not that, although I’m not an expert.”
Mr Musharraf said those blaming the government were not interested in knowing the facts. “How does it absolve the government if it was a bullet or not?” he asked. “If you or anyone else were to accuse the government, the issue of the bullet [versus] explosives is not significant. The media and everyone are involved in an issue that is not very pertinent. Why would we be hiding [the cause of death]? It’s ridiculous, and when I read these comments, I laugh at them.”
But he ruled out ordering a post-mortem without the consent of the Bhutto 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 (Ms Bhutto’s) people agreed. But they will not.”
Asked if Ms Bhutto’s husband was playing a political game, Mr Musharraf said everybody was trying to gain political advantage from the assassination. “The entire opposition is trying to take political advantage,” he said. “I know what [Bhutto’s opponents] used to say about her, but all of a sudden ... it makes me laugh, actually.”
PPP to approach United Nations for investigation
By M.B. Kalhoro
LARKANA, Jan 12: The Pakistan People’s Party will on its own send a request to the UN for setting up a commission to probe Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
Sources told Dawn here on Saturday that a 48-hour ultimatum given to the government by the PPP for submitting the request had expired. The party said it had not received any reply from the government.
The party sources said President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview to a French newspaper, had clearly said the government would not request the UN for a commission.
Asked why had the party not made a request to the president, as its letter was addressed to the caretaker prime minister, the source said “even from him no reply came”.
The PPP also plans to send delegations to a number of countries to urge them to pressure the government to allow a UN-led investigation.
LARKANA, Jan 12: The Pakistan People’s Party will on its own send a request to the UN for setting up a commission to probe Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
Sources told Dawn here on Saturday that a 48-hour ultimatum given to the government by the PPP for submitting the request had expired. The party said it had not received any reply from the government.
The party sources said President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview to a French newspaper, had clearly said the government would not request the UN for a commission.
Asked why had the party not made a request to the president, as its letter was addressed to the caretaker prime minister, the source said “even from him no reply came”.
The PPP also plans to send delegations to a number of countries to urge them to pressure the government to allow a UN-led investigation.
Musharraf rules out UN probe into Benazir murder
ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: President Pervez Musharraf ruled out a United Nations probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in an interview with a French newspaper published on Saturday.
Musharraf told Le Figaro that UN involvement was out of the question, and that the investigation into Benazir Bhutto's murder would be handled internally with the help of British police from Scotland Yard.
Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her son, Bilawal, have both called for a UN inquiry, along the lines of the world body's probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
“This is not possible. Another country is involved? Pakistan is not Lebanon,” Musharraf said in a transcript released by the government, referring to the implication of Syrian officials in the Hariri killing.
“It's a simple murder. We have our own institutions and we can count on the help of Scotland Yard. I hope that the investigation report will be made public before the elections,” he added.
Bilawal said last week that the family and the Pakistan People's Party wanted a “UN-sponsored investigation, because we do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistan government has the necessary transparency.”
Musharraf insisted the elections would go ahead and, while acknowledging an Al Qaeda campaign to destabilise Pakistan, denied the country was “on the verge of disintegration.” “They (the elections) will be held whatever happens. We have to defeat (the) terrorists' campaign aimed at derailing the democratic and economic process,” he said.
Musharraf, meanwhile, said he would quit if he really believed that he no longer had the support of most Pakistanis, but that reports of his unpopularity were untrue.
“I know very well what is the support that I have from the masses, the elite and the army. The day I think that I am genuinely unpopular, I will be the first to resign,” he told Le Figaro.
Meanwhile, a president's spokesman said on Saturday that there was no point in demanding a UN probe into the death of Benazir Bhutto as the case did not fit into the standards for such investigation.
“Such a probe is more appropriate in cases where two or more countries are involved,” Maj-Gen (Retd) Rashid Qureshi, president's spokesman, said in response to a demand by the Pakistan People's Party for a United Nations probe into the Dec 27 assassination of Ms Bhutto in Rawalpindi.
Qureshi told a private channel that the PPP's demand of a Hariri style investigation did not fit in the circumstances of the Liaquat Bagh incident.
The spokesman said the president had already invited the team of British investigators into Pakistan to provide necessary technical and forensic assistance to the local investigators.
He said the United Nations too will have to seek assistance from different countries to help in the probe and Pakistan has already acquired the assistance of British investigators.
He said the British team was mandated to conduct a thorough investigation to determine all aspects of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.—AFP/APP
Musharraf told Le Figaro that UN involvement was out of the question, and that the investigation into Benazir Bhutto's murder would be handled internally with the help of British police from Scotland Yard.
Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her son, Bilawal, have both called for a UN inquiry, along the lines of the world body's probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
“This is not possible. Another country is involved? Pakistan is not Lebanon,” Musharraf said in a transcript released by the government, referring to the implication of Syrian officials in the Hariri killing.
“It's a simple murder. We have our own institutions and we can count on the help of Scotland Yard. I hope that the investigation report will be made public before the elections,” he added.
Bilawal said last week that the family and the Pakistan People's Party wanted a “UN-sponsored investigation, because we do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistan government has the necessary transparency.”
Musharraf insisted the elections would go ahead and, while acknowledging an Al Qaeda campaign to destabilise Pakistan, denied the country was “on the verge of disintegration.” “They (the elections) will be held whatever happens. We have to defeat (the) terrorists' campaign aimed at derailing the democratic and economic process,” he said.
Musharraf, meanwhile, said he would quit if he really believed that he no longer had the support of most Pakistanis, but that reports of his unpopularity were untrue.
“I know very well what is the support that I have from the masses, the elite and the army. The day I think that I am genuinely unpopular, I will be the first to resign,” he told Le Figaro.
Meanwhile, a president's spokesman said on Saturday that there was no point in demanding a UN probe into the death of Benazir Bhutto as the case did not fit into the standards for such investigation.
“Such a probe is more appropriate in cases where two or more countries are involved,” Maj-Gen (Retd) Rashid Qureshi, president's spokesman, said in response to a demand by the Pakistan People's Party for a United Nations probe into the Dec 27 assassination of Ms Bhutto in Rawalpindi.
Qureshi told a private channel that the PPP's demand of a Hariri style investigation did not fit in the circumstances of the Liaquat Bagh incident.
The spokesman said the president had already invited the team of British investigators into Pakistan to provide necessary technical and forensic assistance to the local investigators.
He said the United Nations too will have to seek assistance from different countries to help in the probe and Pakistan has already acquired the assistance of British investigators.
He said the British team was mandated to conduct a thorough investigation to determine all aspects of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.—AFP/APP
Friday, January 11, 2008
Assassination probe: PPP warns of inviting UN
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday threatened to lodge a formal complaint with the United Nations regarding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto if the government failed to send a formal request to the world body for investigating into the death of the slain PPP leader.
Speaking at a news conference, PPP central secretary finance Senator Babar Awan said the party believed that Chapter 6 of the UN Charter allowed individuals to directly contact the UN for investigating the crimes like the assassination of Ms Bhutto on its own if the government refused to use the option of sending a formal request to the world’s highest international body.
He said the party had the right to register with the UN what he called an FIR on the basis of the e-mail sent by Benazir Bhutto to Mark Siegel. “We are left with no other option but to register the FIR with the UN as the government is not showing any seriousness in unveiling the murderers of Benazir Bhutto,” Mr Awan maintained. He said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had constituted delegations that would leave for foreign countries to convince them of putting pressure on the Pakistan government to conduct the investigations into assassination of Ms Bhutto under the auspices of the UN.
A two-member delegation comprising Babar Awan and Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali will approach the European Union countries. Similarly, PPP central secretary information Sherry Rehman and Senator Javed Leghari will leave for the US and Senator Farooque A. Naik will contact the UN in this regard.
Accusing the government of resorting to delaying tactics, Senator Awan said the authorities were bound under Article 173 to present challan of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in a court of law within 14 days, but even after 16 days of the murder no challan had been submitted.
“These deliberate delaying tactics on the part of government in presenting the challan is a clear indication that the regime is not serious in probing the murder of Ms Bhutto”, he said, adding that in the last 16 days, the government had not shown any progress in the investigations to the nation.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday threatened to lodge a formal complaint with the United Nations regarding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto if the government failed to send a formal request to the world body for investigating into the death of the slain PPP leader.
Speaking at a news conference, PPP central secretary finance Senator Babar Awan said the party believed that Chapter 6 of the UN Charter allowed individuals to directly contact the UN for investigating the crimes like the assassination of Ms Bhutto on its own if the government refused to use the option of sending a formal request to the world’s highest international body.
He said the party had the right to register with the UN what he called an FIR on the basis of the e-mail sent by Benazir Bhutto to Mark Siegel. “We are left with no other option but to register the FIR with the UN as the government is not showing any seriousness in unveiling the murderers of Benazir Bhutto,” Mr Awan maintained. He said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had constituted delegations that would leave for foreign countries to convince them of putting pressure on the Pakistan government to conduct the investigations into assassination of Ms Bhutto under the auspices of the UN.
A two-member delegation comprising Babar Awan and Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali will approach the European Union countries. Similarly, PPP central secretary information Sherry Rehman and Senator Javed Leghari will leave for the US and Senator Farooque A. Naik will contact the UN in this regard.
Accusing the government of resorting to delaying tactics, Senator Awan said the authorities were bound under Article 173 to present challan of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in a court of law within 14 days, but even after 16 days of the murder no challan had been submitted.
“These deliberate delaying tactics on the part of government in presenting the challan is a clear indication that the regime is not serious in probing the murder of Ms Bhutto”, he said, adding that in the last 16 days, the government had not shown any progress in the investigations to the nation.
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