Govt. aware when and where Benazir’s assassination plot was hatched: Malik

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has sensationally revealed that the government has come to know where and when the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Benazir Bhutto was hatched.

Interacting with media persons here, Malik reiterated that the government is committed to bring the perpetrators of Bhutto’s murder to justice and that it has asked the United Nations (UN) to provide evidence on several other accounts so that a final ‘challan’ can be filed in the case.

“All those involved in Benazir’s assassination would be brought to justice,” he said.

Replying to a question about Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stating Islamabad’s reservations over the report, which was released in April this year, Malik said the government has asked the UN to provide the evidence collected by its investigative team.We have asked for evidences from the UN which were collected by its investigative team and presented in the report,” The Dawn quoted Malik, as saying.

In his letter, Qureshi had also alleged that the UN commission did not consult the foreign leaders that Pakistan wanted it to meet.

It may be noted that the UN enquiry commission’s report has blamed the then Musharraf government of ‘deliberately’ failing to probe the December 2007 suicide attack on Bhutto, saying the tragedy could have been averted if adequate security arrangements would have been made.

“The Musharraf government failed to provide foolproof security to Ms. Bhutto which ultimately allowed a lethal assault on her. The security breach left wide-open room for an attack to happen,” the report said in its opening remarks. (ANI)