Pakistan to speed up Bhutto murder probe after UN report

Apr 16, 2010, 10:03 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan vowed on Friday to speed up the criminal investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto after a UN report criticized the previous government for failing to protect her despite publicly known threats.

A UN investigative report released in New York Thursday said that Bhutto's death in a gun and suicide attack on December 27, 2007 during an election rally could have been prevented if the government of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had put in place adequate security measures.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman of Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, expressed satisfaction with the findings of the three-member commission, headed by Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz.

'The report has given a direction to the investigation that is being done by the government and its pace would be further hastened,' Babar was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan agency.

Babar said the report has clearly placed responsibility on the previous government of Musharraf and 'exonerated President Asif Ali Zardari and the family.'

The 65-page UN report found that the federal government and the regional government in Punjab province failed to take necessary measures to respond to 'the extraordinary, fresh and urgent security risks' Bhutto was facing.

'A range of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Ms Bhutto and second to investigate with vigour all those responsible for her murder, not only in the execution of the attack, but also in its conception, planning and financing,' the report said.

The commission said that a 15-year-old suicide bomber was identified as having killed Bhutto, but no serious efforts were made to track down the mastermind among the various threat sources, including al-Qaeda, the Taliban, local Jihadi groups and 'elements in the Pakistani establishment.'

Musharraf's spokesman rejected the report's findings. The UN report was 'preposterous, ridiculous and a lie,' Rashid Qureshi said.

The UN panel also criticized Pakistan's intelligence agencies, particularly the all-powerful military Inter-Services Intelligence, for their non-cooperative behaviour in the criminal investigation mainly headed by the Punjab police.

'The autonomy, pervasive reach and clandestine role of intelligence agencies in Pakistani life underlie many of the problems, omissions and commissions set out in this report,' it said.

The commission urged Pakistan to carry out reforms in the Pakistani police as well as its intelligence agencies, and conduct a credible criminal investigation into Bhutto's killing to 'bring those responsible to justice.'

Zardari requested the UN investigation after he replaced Musharraf in 2008. The panel started its work around a year later, in 2009, and interviewed dozens of people, including both Zardari and Musharraf.