Who had assassinated Benazir Bhutto?

Islamabad: On December 27, 2007, former Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack during an election rally at Liyaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi. Benazir Bhutto was the first woman of Muslim world who had a chance of ruling a county.

Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December 2007 with the help of a 15-year-old suicide bomber, Bilal. She had just finished an election rally in Rawalpindi when he approached her convoy, shot at her and blew himself up. Bilal had carried out the attack at the behest of Pakistani Taliban.

Benazir Bhutto became prime Minister of Pakistan twice, but the army never trusted her and expelled her out of the country on the charges of corruption. She was running the election campaign to become Prime Minister for the third time when she was assassinated.

A decade later, the general in charge of Pakistan at the time, General Parvez Musharraf in an interview admitted that people in the establishment could have been involved in her murder. Asked whether rogue elements within the establishment could have been in touch with the Taliban about the killing, General Pervez Musharraf replied: “Possibility. Yes indeed. Because the society is polarised on religious lines.” It’s a startling statement from a former Pakistani head of state. Normally military leaders in Pakistan deny any suggestion of state complicity in violent jihadist attacks. ‘A lady who is in known to be inclined towards the West is seen suspiciously by those elements’, he said.

Musharraf himself is facing charges of murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation for murder in relation to the Bhutto case. Prosecutors say that he called Benazir Bhutto in New York on 25 September, three weeks before she ended eight years in self-imposed exile.

Benazir’s Long-serving Bhutto aide Mark Seighal and journalist Ron Suskind both say they were with Bhutto when the call came in. They told that Benazir had told them that she was given a threat. ‘I was warned not to return to country’. She further said “And he said that my safety and security is a function of my relationship with him.”

Musharraf said he would not be responsible for what would happen to Bhutto if she returned, Seighal told the BBC.

Bilawal Bhutto also said that I consider Parvez Musharraf as my mother’s killer. “Musharraf exploited this entire situation to assassinate my mother,” he said. “He purposely sabotaged her security so that she would be assassinated and taken off the scene.”