month ago, Benazir Bhutto told me during an exclusive interview to DNA in Lahore that the October 18 suicide attack on the rally welcoming her home in Karachi.
ISLAMABAD: A month ago, Benazir Bhutto told me during an exclusive interview to DNA in Lahore that the October 18 suicide attack on the rally welcoming her home in Karachi that killed 140 people could not have been possible without the consent of President Pervez Musharraf.
During her off-the-record conversation with me at the Lahore residence of Senator Latif Khosa in November, Bhutto said she knew fully well even before returning home that an attempt would be made on her life.
She said the October 18 suicide attacks were masterminded by some highly placed officials in the Pakistani security and intelligence establishments who had hired an al-Qaeda linked militant — Maulvi Abdul Rehman Otho alias Abdul Rehman Sindhi — to execute the attack.
She said having come to know of the conspiracy, she instantly wrote a letter to Musharraf, naming those in the Pakistani establishment who were conspiring to kill her, seeking appropriate action from the regime.
However, Bhutto said she could not name Musharraf himself as her possible assassin since he would exploit the letter to his advantage.
Benazir told me the inquest into the deadly bombing had already been wrapped up under instructions from Musharraf since she had accused the director general of the Intelligence Bureau Brigadier (retired) Ejaz Hussain Shah of involvement in the attack.
Benazir further told me that her sources tell her that Abdul Rehman Sindhi who was arrested on June 2004 from Khuda Ki Basti in Kotri near Hyderabad district of Sindh for involvement in the May 2004 twin car bombings blasts in front of the US Cultural Centre was mysteriously released by the authorities before her homecoming on October 18, citing lack of evidence to prosecute him. Bhutto said she has already written another letter naming her would-be assassins.
Asked if she has named Musharraf in that letter and to whom the letter was addressed, Bhutto smiled and said “that I can’t tell you at this stage”.
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