Taliban claims murder in new book

NEWDELHI: The Pakistani Taliban have for the first time claimed responsibility for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a book written by a senior leader of the banned militant group.

After Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, members of military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s regime had blamed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan for the assassination. However, the group and its leaders had never spoken about the incident so far.

The Urdu language book Inqilab Mehsood South Waziristan From British Raj to American Imperialism, written by Taliban leader Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali and published on November 30, 2017 at Maseed Computer Center at Barmal in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, makes the claim that suicide bombers Bilal, also known as Saeed, and Ikramullah were tasked to carry out the attack on Bhutto.

Soon after Bhutto was killed, the Musharraf regime had released a recording of a conversation between the two Taliban members discussing the assassination.

The 588-page book, which contains numerous photographs of Taliban leaders, was posted online on Sunday.

The book further says the Taliban were also involved in an attack by two suicide bombers on an earlier procession by Bhutto in Karachi in October 2007, which killed nearly 140 people.

After a prolonged trial, the anti-terrorism court acquitted five Taliban suspects last year and gave 17-year prison terms to two police officers for dereliction of duty. It also declared Musharraf a fugitive. Musharraf has repeatedly denied any involvement in the matter and dismissed the charges against him as politically motivated.