Benazir Bhutto murder case: criminal investigation job of local agencies, says Kaira

Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on Wednesday said that criminal investigation of the Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's assassination case is the job of local agencies and no foreign agency has any such mandate. Talking to a private television channel the Minister said that the investigation conducted by the UN team has given a direction and the local agencies would probe the case from all angles to reach a conclusion.
He said the investigation is multidimensional and it would cover all the areas in line with UN report. Kaira said that it is clearly mentioned in the UN investigation report that the then federal, provincial and the local governments were responsible for security arrangements for the martyred PPP leader but they failed to do so. He said the PPP leadership had requested the government of the time for appropriate security arrangements but this request was not considered.
Even the low profile political leaders were being provided with VVIP security during their public appearance but a leader of international stature like Benazir Bhutto was deprived of it, he said. He said some of the past Prime Ministers who even remained for only few days in office and even if they had no security threats were treated as VVIP during their public appearance at that time.
He added that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had been Prime Minister twice and was the leader of the most popular political party was left unsecure. Kaira said that after the Karachi attack in which a number of party workers embraced martyrdom, the security of Benazir Bhutto should have been beefed up, which did not happen.
He pointed out that the report has also mentioned that no autopsy of the martyred leader was conducted on the basis of which the cause of her death could have been determined. Surprisingly the very second day of the incident the spokesman of interior ministry was saying that Benazir Bhutto was killed after being hit by the lever of the sun-roof of the vehicle in which she was travelling. He added that within an hour the scene of the incident was washed clean.
Answering the question that why Benazir Bhutto insisted to be in public when there were threats to her life, the Minister said, she was a public figure and she had to keep meeting the people. The fact is that Benazir Bhutto was discouraged from coming back to country through various threats but she was committed to be with her people at the hour of need, the Minister said. He said that Musharraf was well aware of the fact that the return of leaders like Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to country would threaten his rule.
The Minister while responding to a question said, the spokesman of the Interior Ministry of that time gave certain theories to divert the attention from the real areas of investigation soon after the incident. To another question Kaira said that whosoever is required for investigation by the investigation team would be called to justice disregard of his/her status, adding the team would hopefully complete its task in next few weeks.