Pro-Taliban militants demand inquiry into Bhutto's assassination

Dec 31, 2007, 12:42 GMT

Islamabad - Pro-Taliban militants on Monday demanded an independent inquiry into the assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to a local media report.

The pro-democracy icon, 54, was killed last Thursday in a gun-and- suicide bomb attack that government officials claim was carried out by the followers of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the newly formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Taliban Movement Pakistan).

'The government is carrying out a propaganda campaign against Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban is unfairly being alleged for the attack,' the militant group's spokesman Maulvi Omar told the BBC's Urdu service by telephone from undisclosed location.

Bhutto's murder was a great national tragedy and therefore an independent inquiry should be held, he added.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Friday that law enforcement agencies had intercepted a telephone call proving that Mehsud was behind the attack, but the claim had little credence among a public that has become increasingly bitter with President Pervez Musharraf's government.

Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari said Sunday that Bhutto had said in a recent e-mail to her US-based representative, Mark Siegel, that she would hold Musharraf responsible if she were killed.

He demanded the United Nations launch an inquiry into his wife's murder as it did following the February 2005 car bomb assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

'She said while she was alive, who her murderers were,' Zardari said. 'She herself left a letter which has been released by Mark Siegel and published' by international media.

The assassination of Bhutto remains shrouded in mystery since the government has given conflicting accounts of how she died that do not match witness statements and video footage of the attack..

Cheema claimed on Friday that Bhutto died after slamming her head against the sunroof of her Range Rover as she fell from the blast impact, and was not shot in the head, chest and neck as asserted by multiple witnesses and her senior aides.

Exclusive images from the Pakistani-based DawnNews TV refuted those claims the following day. The footage clearly shows Bhutto collapsing into her armoured vehicle before the blast, contradicting official government claims.

There is speculation that the government wants the official version to show Bhutto was not shot because it would show that their security measures in protecting her had failed.

The Taliban spokesman said any independent inquiry that was free from US and Britain influence would be acceptable for them.