LAHORE: The United Nations Inquiry Commission has simply trashed the findings of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Punjab Police which had claimed having solved the Bhutto murder case way back in February 2008 [during the Musharraf regime]by tracing out the mastermind and the killers who are now being tried by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.
A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the Musharraf administration and led by Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Additional Inspector General of the CID Punjab to probe the Bhutto murder, had concluded after the arrest and interrogation of five militants allegedly involved in the attack that the plot was masterminded by Baitullah Mehsud who had given Rs. 4,00,000 to Qari Ismail from Akora Khattak to execute the Bhutto assassination plan.
However, in its 65-page inquiry report, the UN Commission points out that the five persons already arrested and being tried [for the Bhutto murder]are not the main accused. The UN Inquiry report states: “The charges against them include aiding and abetting terrorism, murder and concealing information about the commission of a crime. The JIT focused its efforts on investigating the alleged role of these low-level individuals… After the arrest of the five accused persons, the JIT essentially ceased investigating the possibility of other perpetrators, particularly those who may have been involved in planning or directing the assassination by funding or otherwise enabling the assassination. The JIT even ended its efforts to identify the suicide bomber. Little to no focus was placed on investigating those further up the hierarchy in the planning and execution of the assassination. In particular, the JIT did nothing to build a case against Baitullah Mehsud, treating the contents of the intercept presented to the public by [the then Interior Ministry spokesman]Brigadier Cheema as determinative of his culpability. AIG Majeed told the Commission that he saw no need to establish the authenticity of the intercept or the basis for its analysis, including the voice identification and the interpretation of the conversation as a reference to Bhutto’s assassination. The Commission finds this approach to the investigation contrary to best practices and inconsistent with a genuine search for the truth”.
The UN Commission then questions another conclusion made by the CID Punjab about Baitullah Mehsud being the mastermind of the Rawalpindi suicide attack that killed Ms Bhutto: “The then government’s assertion that Baitullah Mehsud was behind the assassination of Ms Bhutto was premature at best. Such a hasty announcement of the perpetrator prejudiced the police investigations which had not yet begun. Other flaws in the JIT’s approach to investigating Baitullah’s alleged role in the assassination are also inconsistent with a genuine search for the truth. The communication intercepted by ISI is purported to be a telephone conversation between Emir Sahib (said to be Baitullah Mehsud) and Maulvi Sahib. In it, the two speakers congratulate each other on an event which Brig Cheema asserted was the assassination. The ISI asserts that they already had the voice signature of Baitullah and were in a position to identify his voice on the intercept…. But the [recorded]conversation did not mention Ms Bhutto by name. Also, it is not clear how or when the intercept from the ISI was recorded. The Commission is not in a position to evaluate the authenticity of the purported intercept”.
The UN Inquiry Commission report further adds: “There are media reports that Mr Mehsud denied responsibility for the assassination. Mr Saleh Shah Qureshi, Senator from South Waziristan, told the Commission that Mr Mehsud had categorically denied any involvement in the assassination attempt of 18-19 October and the subsequent assassination of Bhutto on 27 December 2007, questioning also the authenticity of the telephone intercept ascribed to Mehsud. The JIT took no steps to investigate the veracity of any such denial. Rather, some government officials from that time told the Commission that any such denials would have no credibility, implying that such investigative steps would not be worthwhile”.
The Commission has pointed out the pertinent fact that the Joint Investigation Team of CID Punjab and Rawalpindi Police neither interrogated or interviewed any of the three persons Benazir Bhutto had described as threat to her security in her October 16, 2007 letter which was addressed to Musharraf. They included Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah, Director General of the IB at the time of the assassination, Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, a former Director General of the ISI, and Pervaiz Elahi, Chief Minister of Punjab at that time. However, the Commission states in its report that a determination of criminal responsibility for planning, organizing, funding, supporting and carrying out the assassination can only be made by the competent authorities of Pakistan. “This Commission has neither the authority nor the means to reach such conclusions”.
The Commission report further observed that the investigation conducted by the Joint Investigation Team, apart from the first few days after the attack, was characterized by inaction. It also pointed out that apart from Major Imtiaz Ahmed, the JIT never interviewed the people in the car with Ms Bhutto at the time of the incident. The Inquiry report states: “After the early actions of the members of the JIT, particularly by the members of the Federal Investigation Agency, JIT relied almost exclusively on information received from intelligence agencies without follow up police work. They did not engage in the most basic police procedures, such as interviewing the occupants of Ms Bhutto’s vehicle. Even if those persons and others within the PPP did not wish to cooperate with the authorities, the Pakistani police had the means to summon participation, and it is surprising that they did not, given the seriousness of the crime. There has been essentially no communication between the Karachi police officials who had been investigating the Karachi attack and the Rawalpindi police officials in the JIT investigating the assassination. The two investigations remain unconnected, despite the need for full communication and cooperation in these linked complex cases”.
According to the UN report, members of the JIT that investigated the murder of Ms Bhutto all but admitted that virtually all of their most important information, including that which led to the identification and arrest of the five suspects now in prison, came from intelligence agencies. The UN report stated: “There is little indication that the JIT considered any other hypotheses, followed leads or developed its own evidence beyond the framework set by those agencies. The UN Commission was told that during a visit by some JIT members, people were seen in the vehicle cleaning it even though investigations were still on-going. When the JIT carried out physical examination of the vehicle, they did not find any hair, blood or other matter on the lip of the escape hatch. Forensic analysis of swabs of the lip of the escape hatch later carried out by the JIT and Scotland Yard also found nothing. It is impossible to establish whether the interference with the vehicle resulted in the elimination of any matter that may have been present on the lip, or whether there was no such matter in the first place. It is clear, however, that such interference would have damaged any forensic evidence present”.
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