'No smoking gun', what then?
By Farooq Hameed Khan | Published: August 10, 2009- Digg
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"Our report would not be a smoking gun. We would not tell the names of the perpetrators, we will look into the facts and circumstances of the killing, the responsibility for investigating the crime and prosecuting the perpetrators remained with Pakistani authorities," states Heraldo Munoz, the Chilean UN Ambassador also Chairman of UN Independent Commission investigating the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto on december 27, 2007. Other members of this Commission include Marzuki Darusman, former Indonesian Attorney General and Peter Fitzgerald, an Irish national and police veteran who had earlier headed an inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri in 2005.
Whereas the UN Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) in case of Rafiq Hariri was mandated to carry out a criminal investigation and pinpoint the killers, the mission of Independent UN Commission probing BB's tragedy does not include this critical aspect and merely seeks to lay down the facts and circumstances of BB's murder. In fact the 2005 Hariri Commission, based in Beirut continues its operations todate, having filed around ten Reports to UNSC so far. As a step further, a UN backed Special Tribunal was established in The Hague, Netherlands early this year for trial of those accused of killing Hariri.
According to President Zardari, Pakistan approached the UN, because it wanted the world body to probe BB's assassination to uncover any conspiracy to 'balkanize the country', to undertake a transparent and above board investigation so that there are no accusations of bias and also let the world know how a democratic leader heroically laid down her life to foil the designs against the country, thereby to honor her internationally.
The Liaquat Bagh tragedy continues to raise many doubts and suspicions in the common mind. Why such efficiency in washing the crime scene with pressure hoses within hours of the tragedy, hence wiping out valuable forensic evidence? In the wake of the earlier failed Karachi attempt on BB's life, why was she not provided VVIP level security? Why did the authorities fail to install hi tech security equipment like bomb jammers on BB's vehicle or provide police outriders escort?
Why was no autopsy/postmortem performed before her burial? Did Benazir receive any cellular calls which motivated her to emerge from the vehicle's roof hatch to wave at the crowd? Why those conflicting statements of the doctor who first attended to BB in the hospital, regarding cause of her death ?
Why did a particular senior PPP leader who was incharge of BB's security and usually remained close to Benazir on such occasions, surprisingly leave the motorcade minutes before the tragedy and rush to Zardari house in Islamabad? Why was a key PPP security aide, who caught the media's attention making strange gestures standing close to BB on the Liaquat Bagh stage, killed few months later.







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