‘Islamabad partly responsible for death’

By Our Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Dec 29: The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden, has said that the Pakistani government was “indirectly complicit” in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination because it failed to provide adequate security to her.

Mr Biden, who is also a leading presidential candidate, released a letter that he and two Senate colleagues wrote to President Pervez Musharraf at Ms Bhutto’s request to urge him to step up her security.

The letter, sent soon after the October attempt on Ms Bhutto’s rally, urges that she be given “the full level of security support afforded to any former prime minister,” including bomb-proof vehicles and jamming equipment.

Mr Biden said, however, that their appeal was unavailing and that the Pakistani government was “indirectly complicit” in the assassination.

“I’m not saying had she had the protection she would have lived,” Mr Biden said in a CBS interview. “But it sure bothers me that she did not have the kind of protection she needed.”

The CBS report, however, noted that several security analysts have questioned Ms Bhutto’s decision to mingle with supporters while standing through the sunroof of her armoured SUV after her rally on Thursday.

Congressman Steve Israel, a New York democrat, released an email message that Ms Bhutto had written to a former aide saying she feared that she could be killed because of her limited security.