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.