Last update - 00:00 30/12/2007
Pakistan rejects foreign assistance in Bhutto assassination probe
By The Associated Press
Pakistan said Saturday that it did not need foreign assistance to investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, despite deepening
controversy over how the former prime minister died and who killed her.
President Pervez Musharraf ordered his security chiefs to quell mass rioting by Bhutto's grieving followers that has killed at least 44 people over three days, caused tens of millions of dollars in damage and paralyzed the country.
"Criminals should stop their despicable activities, otherwise they will have to face serious consequences," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
With their leader dead, the Pakistan People's Party called a meeting Sunday at which it is expected to choose a new leader, decide whether to participate in the January 8 parliamentary elections and hear Bhutto's testament.
If the party pulls out, it would destroy the credibility of the poll, already being boycotted by rival opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. The U.S. government has pressured Musharraf to push ahead with the election to promote stability.
The riots destroyed nine election offices and hampered the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers, the election commission said. The commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday to decide how to proceed.
Questions about the circumstances of Bhutto's assassination have intensified since she died Thursday evening when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle outside a campaign rally.
The government blamed the attack on Baitullah Mehsud, head of the Tehrik-i-Taliban, a newly formed coalition of Islamic militants along the Afghan border believed to be linked to Al-Qaida and committed to waging holy war against the government.
But a spokesman for Mehsud, Maulana Mohammed Umer, dismissed the allegations as government propaganda. "Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto," he said in a telephone call he made to AP from the tribal region of South Waziristan. "The fact is that we are only against America, and we don't consider political leaders of Pakistan our enemy."
Bhutto's aides said they, too, doubted Mehsud was involved and accused the government of a cover-up. "The story that al-Qaida or Baitullah Mehsud did it appears to us to be a planted story," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's party.
Controversy also swirled about the cause of death. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds. A surgeon who treated her later said the impact from shrapnel on her skull killed her.
But Cheema said Friday that Bhutto was killed when the shockwaves from the bomb smashed her head into the car's sunroof. Bhutto's spokeswoman Sherry Rehman, who was in the vehicle that rushed her boss to the hospital, disputed that. "She was bleeding profusely, as she had received a bullet wound in her neck. Three doctors at the hospital told us that she had received bullet wounds. I was among the people who gave her a final bath. We saw a bullet wound in the back of her neck," she said. "What the government is saying is actually dangerous and nonsensical. There are no findings, they are just lying."
The disputes were sure to further enflame the violence and have led to calls for an international, independent investigation into the attack. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband offered his country's assistance. "Obviously it's very important that a full investigation does take place, and has the confidence of all concerned," he said.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said an international probe was vital because there was no reason to trust the Pakistani government, while others called for a UN investigation.
Cheema dismissed the suggestion. "This is not an ordinary criminal matter in which we require assistance of the international community. I think we are capable of handling it," he said. An independent judicial investigation should be completed within seven days of the appointment of its presiding judge, he said.
Roads across Bhutto's southern Sindh province were littered with burning vehicles, smoking reminders of the continuing chaos raging across the country. At least 44 people were killed in Sindh, officials there said, and there were reports of scattered deaths elsewhere.
Desperate to quell the violence, the government sent troops into several cities. One gunbattle in Karachi killed three people and wounded 17 others in a neighborhood where rioters had looted food stores in recent days, police officer Fayyaz Khan said.
Rangers were given the authority to shoot at rioters to quell the violence, and some of the wounded in the Karachi incident said the paramilitary troops fired at them without provocation.
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