In an interview today with BBC Urdu, the militant leader whom the Pakistan government accuses of having planned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto called for an independent investigation into the killing. From Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Pro-Taliban militants on Monday demanded an independent inquiry into the assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to a local media report.
The pro-democracy icon, 54, was killed last Thursday in a gun-and- suicide bomb attack that government officials claim was carried out by the followers of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the newly formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Taliban Movement Pakistan).
'The government is carrying out a propaganda campaign against Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban is unfairly being alleged for the attack,' the militant group's spokesman Maulvi Omar told the BBC's Urdu service by telephone from undisclosed location.
He said any independent inquiry that was free from US and British influence would be acceptable for them.
Cernig comments...
Either Mehsud is playing an astute game of destabilisation or he really didn't order the killing.
Of course Mehsud wants his call for an independent inquiry to be interpreted as a mark of innocence. On the other hand, he could well be innocent of this particular murder. The allegation by Pakistani authorities that they intercepted a message from Mehsud congratulating the killers hasn't been corroborated by other intelligence agencies and certainly looks for all the world like an official stitch-up.
Bhutto supporters are skeptical of the reports' veracity. "We do not know if it is a genuine transcript or one created by the intelligence agencies," says PPP party spokesman Farhatullah Babar. Mehsud has become a convenient scapegoat in recent terrorist attacks, sometimes standing in when investigators turn up empty handed.
My guess is that this interview is intended mainly to stir up further unrest in Pakistan against Pervez Musharraf and to paint his opposition to an international investigation as evidence of a conspiracy.
Stranger and stranger.
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