Pakistan has decided to ask Interpol to arrest the former President, Pervez Musharraf, in connection with the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, for failing to provide adequate security to her. Mr. Musharraf is currently based in the U.K.
This was announced by Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday while briefing the Sindh Assembly on the findings of the investigation into her assassination. While the briefing did not throw up new details, the Minister said 27 terrorist outfits helped the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan execute the assassination on December 27, 2007, in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.
The briefing was given to the Sindh Assembly on request jointly by Mr. Malik and the chief of the Joint Investigation Team Khalid Qureshi. Armed with audio feed and video footage, the two informed the Assembly that the conspiracy to assassinate the former Premier was hatched in the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies and the funding trail also led to those areas bordering Afghanistan.
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Maintaining that more time was still needed to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, the Minister said the reason the investigations took so much time was that the plot was being pieced together on the basis of circumstantial evidence. What has made the task of investigators particularly difficult is the fact that the assassination site was washed out soon after her killing — an act that has raised eyebrows and put question marks on the intent of the security personnel who ordered it.