The tragic assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party shocked the entire nation, unleashed brutal violence, derailed electoral process and above all shook the solidarity of the Federation.
The conspiracy theories concerning the tragic end of Ms Bhutto are now abounding in the country. These speculations are treacherous, which might fuel the anti-government sentiments and plunge the country into a state of anarchy. In the aftermath of assassination of former Prime Minister the common man did experience nearly Afghanistan and Iraq-like situation in the country, especially in the province of Sindh.
She was killed by a suicide attack or a sniper fire while she was leaving an election rally and responding to the cheers of jubilant party activists from the sunroof of her bulletproof vehicle in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. The government and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have difference of opinion over the manner in which she was died. Both sides blamed different groups for the assassination. These contradictions have widened the gap between the PPP and ruling elite in Pakistan.
The Interior Ministry spokesperson, Brigadier (R) Javed Iqbal Cheema, while explaining the causes of death, claimed that Ms Bhutto died when she hit her head on her vehicle’s sunroof as she ducked after a gun and suicide attack on her vehicle. He stated that no bullets or shrapnel were found in her body. Whereas PPP has a different view over the cause of the killing.
The leading members of PPP vociferously rejected the government story. “It is baseless. It is a pack of lies,” Farooq Naik, Ms Bhutto’s top lawyer and a senior official in PPP, said. Sherry Rehman, spokesperson of the PPP, claimed she saw a bullet wound in Benazir Bhutto’s head when she bathed her body after her assassination. She stated, “There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side. We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood.” These claims were repeated by the Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of Ms Bhutto in a press conference.
The government officials maintain that they provided foolproof security to Ms Bhutto. The footage telecast by different TV channels make it abundantly clear that there was no security cordon around Ms Bhutto’s vehicle. The police was not around. Therefore, the assailant comfortably fired at the victim. Moreover, these images also justify the PPP stance and strengthen the conspiracy theories, which lay the responsibility of the former prime minister’s death on acts of omission or commission by government agencies or its allies. Nevertheless, the government is doing its best to dispel the impression that its allies were involved in the assassination of the former prime minister.
The Interior Ministry’s spokesperson attributed the assassination to Baitullah Mehsud, al-Qaeda. The reports indicate that al-Qaeda linked militant Baitullah Mehsud was not involved in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud’s spokesperson, Maulvi Omar, immediately refuted the interior ministry’s accusation. He said, “I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don’t strike women.” Simultaneously, the PPP spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar, stated that Mehsud had sent reliable emissaries to Bhutto at least twice after the October 18 bombing, to reassure her that he was not her enemy. He had nothing to do with her or against her or with the assassination attempt on her on October 18, 2007. The interior ministry’s spokesperson justifies his stance by claiming that criminals do not admit their crime. Therefore, government findings were correct. The authenticity of government stance is questionable because the terrorist organisations or insurgents always take pride in announcing their achievements to unleash terror in the targeted societies.
The co-chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari gave an impression that the ruling elite was involved in the assassination of his wife. He called pro-Musharraf PML-Q, “Qatil (killer) league.” He appealed to the United Nations and the British government to help in the investigation of the Dec 27 assassination of Ms Bhutto. He said that the party wanted a UN investigation like the one probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Secretary General of the Punjab chapter of PPP had also accused the authorities of destroying evidence of the assassination of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto by washing the place where the incident happened. Many raise the question that what was the hurry in cleaning up the crime scene so soon after the tragedy.
Ms Bhutto herself had accused elements from the intelligence services of involvement in a suicide attack on a Bhutto rally on October 18 in Karachi that left 139 dead. The late former prime minister narrowly escaped in the deadly attack. The PPP has demanded that the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister must be based upon the letter she had written to Mark Seigel. It must be treated as her final statement as she pointed out her killers. According to press reports in that letter she named former Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, former Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Intelligence Bureau Chief Ijaz Shah and ex-ISI chief Gen (R) Hameed Gul, as the conspirators for her murder.
The contradictory conclusions undermine government’s credibility to provide adequate security to opposition leaders. At the same time, it questioned the integrity of the investigation process. This has raised the level of confusion over the killing, which is perilous to the harmony of the society. To be precise, unfortunately perhaps we will never know who actually killed Bhutto.
