The Interior Ministry has expanded the team investigating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto by inducting two police officers from Islamabad and Sindh Police and representatives from intelligence agencies.
The step was taken after detained former City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Saud Aziz informed the court that he was in contact with four officers of MI and ISI during the public rally, in which Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, informed sources in the Interior Ministry told Business Recorder on Saturday.
They said the notification regarding the expansion was also issued and two police officers Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Islamabad Bani Ameen Ahmed and SP Sindh Police Rao Nawaz, as well as representatives from intelligence agencies including Military Intelligence (MI), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Crime Investigation Department (CID) were inducted in the team. The team was given more powers for expanding the canvas of the investigation, they added. These officers will work under Khalid Qureshi, Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and head of the Special Investigation Group of the agency, sources added.
The FIA team led by its Director Khalid Qureshi is investigating the case and came under fire from the court over slow investigation process. The Anti Terrorist Court at one stage threatened to issue arrest warrants of the investigators for the delay in submitting challan in the court.
Sources privy to investigation team revealed that two detained police officers - former CPO Saud Aziz and former SP Khurram Shahzad have handed over their official mobile SIM cards to the investigation team but have not provided their personal SIMs. They said the investigation team is facing difficulties in obtaining the December 2007 record of the cell phones of the two detained officers.