Taleban claim Benazir’s murder in new book

islamabad — The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) has for the first time claimed responsibility for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a new book in written by outlawed Taleban leader Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali.

Benazir was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi shortly after she addressed an election rally on December 27, 2007 and members of the then military regime of General Pervez Musharraf had blamed the TTP for it. The outfit has so far maintained its silence over the assassination.

No group had claimed responsibility for Benazir’s murder until the claim in Inqilab Mehsood South Waziristan — From British Raj to American Imperialism. The book says suicide bombers Bilal, who was also known as Saeed and Ikramullah were tasked to carry out the attack on Benazir on December 27.

“Bomber Bilal first fired at Benazir Bhutto from his pistol and the bullet hit her neck. Then he detonated his explosive jacket and blew himself up among the participants of the procession,” Daily Times on Monday quoted the book as saying.

After Benazir’s assassination, the Musharraf regime had released an audio conversation purpotedly between the two Taleban men talking about Benazir’s death.

The book also claims that the Taleban were behind another attack on Benazir, carried out by two suicide bombers in October 2007 in Karachi, in which nearly 140 people died.

“Despite attacks on Benazir Bhutto’s procession in Karachi, the government had not taken appropriate security measures that made it possible for the attackers to have easy access to Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi,” claims the book. The book states that Baitullah Mehsud, the then head of the TTP, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2009, had approved the attack on Benazir’s procession in October 2007, when she returned to Pakistan to lead campaign for the 2008 parliamentary elections. —