South Asia News

Pro-Taliban militants deny hand in Bhutto's killing

Dec 29, 2007, 11:55 GMT

Islamabad - Pro-Taliban militants on Saturday denied the claim of the Pakistani government that they were involved in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, media reports said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema claimed late Friday that law enforcement agencies had intercepted a telephone conversation proving that Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the newly-formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement Pakistan) in the country's volatile tribal areas, was behind the attack on Bhutto.

'The government is trying to defame the tribesmen,' Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the militants, told the BBC's Urdu Service by telephone from an undisclosed location.

'Benazir Bhutto's murder is a political matter, and there is a very strong possibility that the (country's) intelligence agencies were behind the attack.'