British police discuss Bhutto killing with Musharraf

British forensic experts assisting the investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination met President Pervez Musharraf today to share their initial findings.

British forensic experts assisting the investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination met President Pervez Musharraf today to share their initial findings.

The six-member team from Scotland Yard’s anti-terror division arrived in Pakistan last week amid growing pressure for an international investigation into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Pakistan’s popular opposition leader on December 27.

The British experts visited the site of the shooting and bombing attack to take photographs and record video and spoke to local security officers.

They met President Musharraf at his office this morning to share their initial findings with him.

The meeting came a day after Ms Bhutto’s supporters called for the formation of a UN committee with a broad mandate to investigate the former prime minister’s assassination and the events leading up to the attack outside a campaign rally.

The government blamed the attack on Islamic militants, while her party demanded an independent investigation to determine who was behind his killing.

Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for the Pakistan People’s Party, said yesterday: “This was not just a Pakistani issue, it is an issue that will reverberate not just in the region, it will reverberate in the world.”

She said the government had failed to properly investigate a suicide bombing on October 18 that targeted Ms Bhutto during her homecoming parade in the city of Karachi and killed about 150 people.

That failure led to the successful attack on Ms Bhutto two months later, she said.

Ms Rehman demanded the UN Security Council authorise an investigation into Ms Bhutto’s killing and the events leading up to it. She also reiterated accusations, denied by the government, that Ms Bhutto was not given proper security.

“Why did the government not provide security to the most important woman in the whole world?” she asked.

Ms Rehman also complained about the government’s decision to postpone the election after days of rioting that followed Ms Bhutto’s killing, accusing it of using the delay to rig the vote.

“The People’s Party condemns the delay in the election and will not tolerate any further move to delay it or hijack this election,” she said.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, head of another opposition party and a fierce critic of Mr Musharraf, called on the president to resign and reinstate the judges he dismissed during a six-week state of emergency that ended last month.

He also called for a national unity government to be formed to run the elections.

“If he stays in power, then nobody can save the country from complete destruction,” he said in Lahore.

“They are planning massive rigging in polls and I want to make it clear that this would be disastrous for Pakistan.”

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