Agence France-Presse
Thursday, February 7, 2008 (Islamabad)
Pakistani investigators arrested two ''very important alleged terrorists'' on Thursday in connection with the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, officials said.The men were held in a raid in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where former premier Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on December 27, interior ministry and security officials said.The arrests, described by Pakistani officials as a ''major breakthrough,'' coincided with the return to the country of British detectives who have been helping with the inquiry.''I can confirm two people have been arrested in connection with the probe into Bhutto's murder and they are being interrogated by the joint investigation team,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP.A statement by a Pakistani investigation team created to probe her killing said it had ''arrested two very important alleged terrorists, Hasnain and Rafaqat, this morning from Rawalpindi with the help of Rawalpindi police.''''They are being interrogated,'' the statement added.Bhutto's murder sparked days of rioting in the volatile nuclear-armed nation and forced general elections to be postponed by six weeks.The Pakistani government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency have accused Baitullah Mehsud, an Al-Qaeda-linked militant commander based in the tribal area of South Waziristan, of masterminding the attack.Mehsud has denied any involvement and Bhutto, in an autobiography to be published posthumously later this month, accused senior government and intelligence officials, as well as extremists, of plotting to kill her.A senior security official however said that the two men arrested in Rawalpindi had ties to Mehsud.''It is a major breakthrough. These two men were involved in the assassination and they are from a militant group which is relatively new,'' the official said.''Their tentacles are from the tribal region and Baitullah Mehsud.''Last month police arrested a 15-year-old named as Aitezaz Shah, who allegedly confessed to being part of a back-up squad of suicide bombers who were supposed to target Bhutto if the initial attack failed. The boy and his alleged handler were seized in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.The Scotland Yard team helping to investigate Bhutto's death is due to present its report on Friday.The government has said the British investigators' task was to give their opinion on the cause of Bhutto's death to bring to an end a controversy over exactly how she died.Initially the government said the two-time premier died from a fatal blow to the skull when she hit the lever of a sunroof while ducking into her vehicle to avoid the suicide blast at an election rally.But her party and media reports said she died of wounds from bullets fired by an assassin from close range as she stood waving to party workers.Musharraf later admitted that it was possible Bhutto might have been shot dead. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has demanded a United Nations probe into her death but the government has rejected this. Tens of thousands of her supporters gathered outside Bhutto's tomb in southern Pakistan on Thursday to mark the end of the official 40-day mourning period for their late leader.
Thursday, February 7, 2008 (Islamabad)
Pakistani investigators arrested two ''very important alleged terrorists'' on Thursday in connection with the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, officials said.The men were held in a raid in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where former premier Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on December 27, interior ministry and security officials said.The arrests, described by Pakistani officials as a ''major breakthrough,'' coincided with the return to the country of British detectives who have been helping with the inquiry.''I can confirm two people have been arrested in connection with the probe into Bhutto's murder and they are being interrogated by the joint investigation team,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP.A statement by a Pakistani investigation team created to probe her killing said it had ''arrested two very important alleged terrorists, Hasnain and Rafaqat, this morning from Rawalpindi with the help of Rawalpindi police.''''They are being interrogated,'' the statement added.Bhutto's murder sparked days of rioting in the volatile nuclear-armed nation and forced general elections to be postponed by six weeks.The Pakistani government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency have accused Baitullah Mehsud, an Al-Qaeda-linked militant commander based in the tribal area of South Waziristan, of masterminding the attack.Mehsud has denied any involvement and Bhutto, in an autobiography to be published posthumously later this month, accused senior government and intelligence officials, as well as extremists, of plotting to kill her.A senior security official however said that the two men arrested in Rawalpindi had ties to Mehsud.''It is a major breakthrough. These two men were involved in the assassination and they are from a militant group which is relatively new,'' the official said.''Their tentacles are from the tribal region and Baitullah Mehsud.''Last month police arrested a 15-year-old named as Aitezaz Shah, who allegedly confessed to being part of a back-up squad of suicide bombers who were supposed to target Bhutto if the initial attack failed. The boy and his alleged handler were seized in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.The Scotland Yard team helping to investigate Bhutto's death is due to present its report on Friday.The government has said the British investigators' task was to give their opinion on the cause of Bhutto's death to bring to an end a controversy over exactly how she died.Initially the government said the two-time premier died from a fatal blow to the skull when she hit the lever of a sunroof while ducking into her vehicle to avoid the suicide blast at an election rally.But her party and media reports said she died of wounds from bullets fired by an assassin from close range as she stood waving to party workers.Musharraf later admitted that it was possible Bhutto might have been shot dead. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has demanded a United Nations probe into her death but the government has rejected this. Tens of thousands of her supporters gathered outside Bhutto's tomb in southern Pakistan on Thursday to mark the end of the official 40-day mourning period for their late leader.
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