ID :
154484
Thu, 12/23/2010 - 07:22
Auther :

Two top Pak police officers arrested in Benazir killing case

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Dec 22 (PTI) Two top Pakistani police
officials were arrested on Wednesday in a courtroom, on the
orders of an anti-terrorism judge, conducting the trial of
suspects accused of involvement in the 2007 assassination of
former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed, who is conducting the trial
within the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for
security reasons, rejected the bail applications of former
city police chief Saud Aziz and former Superintendent of
Police Khurram Shahzad and directed officials to arrest them.
The move came after the Federal Investigation Agency
submitted a supplementary chargesheet in which it named the
two police officers as accused and sought their arrest to take
forward its probe into the assassination.
Prosecutors have raised questions about the alleged
failure of the two police officers to provide adequate
security to Bhutto during an election rally held in Rawalpindi
on December 27, 2007, the day she was killed in a gun-and-bomb
attack.
They have also questioned Aziz's acceptance of a
decision by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari not to allow an
autopsy to be conducted on her body and the hosing down of the
crime scene soon after the assassination.
Aziz presented some documents and an audio recording
of Zardari saying no autopsy should be conducted on Bhutto's
body but these were not accepted by the judge.
Prosecutors told the judge that the FIA's probe could
move forward only if the two police officers were arrested.
The anti-terrorism court scheduled the next hearing
of the assassination case for January 7.
Prosecution officials said the two police officers
would be presented before a magistrate by tomorrow so that
they could be remanded to the FIA's custody.
The anti-terrorism court is conducting the trial of
five suspects linked to the Pakistani Taliban who have been
charged with involvement in Bhutto's assassination.
The report of a UN commission that probed the
assassination said Bhutto’s killing could have been prevented.
The report criticised the police's decision to hose
down the crime scene, and said its failure to collect and
preserve evidence "inflicted irreparable damage to the
investigation". PTI

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