Two police officials arrested in Bhutto assassination

من طرف **Admin** الأربعاء 22 ديسمبر 2010, 7:07 am

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan arrested two senior police
officials Wednesday in connection with the assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto.
A court refused bail for the two officials, Saud Aziz and Khurram Shehzad,
said special public prosecutor Chaudhary Zulfiqar Ali. Aziz was the police chief
in the Rawalpindi district at the time of Bhutto's assassination while Shehzad
was the head of her security team.
The two have been accused of security breaches, covering up evidence by
hosing down the crime scene and failing to conduct a post-mortem examination on
Bhutto.
Aziz and Shehzad said Bhutto's husband and the current president, Asif Ali
Zardari, ordered them to not conduct the post-mortem. An audio of that request
was played in court Wednesday.
The court found the two men had failed their legal obligation as police.
A United Nations panel looking into Bhutto's assassination concluded that
Pakistan's military-led former government failed to adequately protect her and
that intelligence agencies hindered the subsequent investigation.
The panel's scathing report in April said the suicide bombing that killed
Bhutto "could have been prevented" and that police deliberately failed to pursue
an effective investigation into the killings.
The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Bhutto had been afforded
adequate protection.
Bhutto had returned from a self-imposed, eight-year exile to run in the
country's general elections in 2007. She escaped one attempt on her life but was
killed on December 27 by a 15-year-old suicide bomber while campaigning in
Rawalpindi, the seat of Pakistan's military.
"No one believes that this boy acted alone," the U.N. report said. "A range
of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Ms.
Bhutto, and second to investigate with vigor all those responsible for her
murder, not only in the execution of the attack, but also in its conception,
planning and financing."

The two police officials are scheduled to appear for a
hearing January 7

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 22, 2010 -- Updated 1440 GMT (2240 HKT