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January 12, 2008
New Questions arise in Bhutto killing
Rick Moran
Two new reports on last month's asssassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto have only added to the mystery and confusion surrounding that event:
Two new reports on the assassination last month of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto suggest that the killing may have been an ambitious plot rather than an isolated act of violence and that the government of President Pervez Musharraf knows far more than it's admitted about the murder.
A police officer who witnessed the assassination said that a mysterious crowd stopped Bhutto's car that day, moving her to emerge through the sunroof. And a document has surfaced in the Pakistani news media that contradicts the government's version of her death and contains details on the pistol and the suicide bomb used in the murder.
The witness was Ishtiaq Hussain Shah of the Rawalpindi police. As Bhutto's car headed onto Rawalpindi's Liaquat Road after an election rally Dec. 27, a crowd appeared from nowhere and stopped the motorcade, shouting slogans of her Pakistan Peoples Party and waving party banners, according to his account.
Bhutto, apparently thinking she was greeting her supporters, emerged through the sunroof of the bulletproof car to wave. Such a diversion as well as "baiting the trap" smells of a professional military operation. At the very least, there is a level of sophistication that might even be beyond al-Qaeda although perhaps we should never underestimate their capacity to do anything.
Musharraf is a fool if he is trying to hide anything relating to the assassination. For whatever reason, it makes no sense simply because when information that he is sitting on comes out, it only feeds the suspicions against him and his government. This contributes to unrest in the streets which in turn, threatens his hold on power.
It's a long way to February 18 and the elections.
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