Pakistan rejects Bhutto's call for foreign help in blast probe

Oct 22, 2007, 11:00 GMT

Islamabad - The Pakistani government Monday rejected ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's suggestion that foreign experts should be involved in the probe into last Thursday's suicide attack on her procession.

'Our experts are conducting the investigations and they are fully capable of doing it,' Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad.

A suicide bomber blew himself up on Thursday in a procession that Bhutto was leading after arriving from Dubai to end an eight-year self-imposed exile, killing 140 people and injuring more than 500.

Following the attack, she blamed Islamic militants and their supporters within the government and demanded on Saturday an independent inquiry led by investigators from the United States and Britain.

'They have anti-terrorism experts who have the technical expertise to investigate attacks of this nature,' she said, adding Pakistan's security agencies had been infiltrated by 'militants and Al Qaeda.'

'We have no intentions even of considering the proposal,' Sherpao said.

Pakistan's Islamic militants, especially those in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, are angry over Bhutto's recent power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf under which both intend to form a liberal alliance against the extremist forces in the country.

Washington and London have backed the alliance, believing it would boost the efforts of Musharraf, a key US ally in what it calls it's war on terrorism. They also hope the alliance will help maintain stability in the nuclear-armed state and control Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in tribal region from launching assaults on international forces in Afghanistan.

'By siding with him (Musharraf), Benazir was making herself a target for assassination,' cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said in comments published by the British Daily Telegraph on Sunday.

Thursday's tragedy was inevitable, Khan added.