Detained cops name ISI, MI officers in Benazir Bhutto assassination case

ISLAMABAD - The investigation into former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is likely to be widened to unveil some faces who have so far been out of the picture, after two former police officers who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder case, told investigators that some intelligence officials were in contact with them on December 27, 2007.

Special Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told reporters that the arrested duo- former Rawalpindi city police chief Saud Aziz and SP Khurram Shahzad- had informed the investigators that four officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) had been in contact with them, the Dawn reports.

Their names could not be disclosed as of now, as it was yet to be ascertained in what context they were in contact with the accused, he added.

However, if concrete evidence was found against the intelligence officers, they would be included in the investigation, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency obtained six days’ physical custody of the arrested officers to recover the cellphones they were using on the day Bhutto was murdered in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh.

The FIA investigators said in the court that forensic tests of the cellphones were needed to ascertain who had been in contact with the two police officers on the day of Bhutto’s assassination.

Advocate Zulfiqar said that the phone data would help the investigators to know if other elements were also involved in the murder.

He said that the police officers had given divergent statements about the cell phones and the numbers used by them three years ago, initially saying that they had lost their phones and later claiming that their mobiles had broken up. (ANI)