Benazir Bhutto's homecoming rally attacker a free man: Report

A key terror suspect accused of masterminding a suicide attack on former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto's homecoming rally in Karachi in 2007 has resurfaced in Punjab as a free man, according to a media report today.

Bhutto, who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in December 2007, had named al-Qaeda-linked commander Qari Saifullah Akhtar in her last book as the alleged mastermind of the attack on her motorcade in Karachi.

Over 140 people died in that attack.

Akhtar, described as a "fugitive" leader of the Taliban-linked Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami group, has been freed by Punjab's home department, The News daily quoted its sources in security agencies as saying.

He had been kept under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Chishtian sub-division of Punjab since August and was freed in the first week of December, the report said.

Earlier reports had said Akhtar had shifted to the lawless Waziristan tribal region in 2008.

The daily quoted its sources as saying that Akhtar had to abandon Waziristan, his birthplace, after he was wounded in a US drone attack.

He travelled to Peshawar and then to Rawalpindi for treatment, before being arrested and brought to Lahore.

The order for Akhtar's release was issued ahead of Bhutto’s third death anniversary.

In her posthumous book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, Bhutto had narrated in detail the suicide attacks targeting her homecoming rally and Akhtar's alleged involvement in the attack.

She wrote: "I was informed of a meeting that had taken place in Lahore where the bomb blasts were planned.

"Three men belonging to a rival political faction were hired for half a million dollars.

"However, a bomb maker was needed for the bombs.

"Enter Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a wanted terrorist who had tried to overthrow my second government.

"He had been extradited by the United Arab Emirates and was languishing in the Karachi central jail.

"The officials in Lahore had turned to Akhtar for help.

"His liaison with elements in the government was a radical who was asked to make the bombs and he himself asked for a fatwa making it legitimate to oblige. He got one.

"The bomb blasts took place in the army cantonment area in Karachi."

Subsequently, Akhtar was arrested on February 26, 2008 by the regime of former President Pervez Musharraf for questioning in connection with Bhutto's murder though "many in establishment circles believed that Qari Saifullah had actually been taken into protective custody by his spy masters," the report said.