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Scotland Yard “agrees” Al-Qaeda killed Benazir

LONDON: Scotland Yard detectives helping with the investigation into the assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, reportedly agree with the official claim that she was killed by Al-Qaeda.

The Sunday Times has quoted British officials as saying that the “evidence” collected by the Yard team points towards Al-Qaeda’s involvement in the murder.

The Scotland Yard team, which includes experts in forensic science, video evidence and explosives, does not have the brief to establish who killed Benazir but simply to help with the analysis of evidence.

However, the British media has been full of speculation, quoting unnamed officials as lending credence to the Pakistan government’s version of Benazir’s assassination.

The Sunday Times report from Christina Lamb, Benazir’s personal friend and biographer, said: “British officials have revealed that evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al-Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.”

It also claimed that the disputed transcript of a supposed conversation between Baitullah Mehsud, the tribal militant leader with Al-Qaeda links, and an extremist associate in which he admits to his group’s involvement in the killing is “genuine”, according to British and American officials in Pakistan.

The newspaper said that according to “diplomats”, Mehsud had dispatched teams of suicide bombers to “follow Bhutto to rallies and seize an opportunity to kill her”. Asked why Pakistani forces had not captured Mehsud, one official was reported as saying that it was not easy go into tribal areas. Benazir’s family has dismissed the Scotland Yard inquiry as a whitewash.

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