Benazir Bhutto assassination case: Pervez Musharraf accuses Asif Ali Zardari of involvement in murder

Islamabad: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf on Thursday accused Peoples Party of Pakistan leader Asif Ali Zardari of “having the most to gain from Benazir Bhutto’s murder,” in a video posted on his official Facebook page. The video came days after he was accused of being involved in the murder. [caption id=“attachment_3538029” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Pervez Musharraf. Reuters[/caption]

“Asif Ali Zardari is responsible for the Bhutto family’s demise and is involved in the deaths of Benazir and Murtaza Bhutto,” he said in a startling address directed at the three Bhutto-Zardari children, the Bhutto family and the people of Sindh.

“Every time there is a murder, the first thing that needs to be seen is who has the most to gain from the death. In this case, I had everything to lose as I was in power and the murder put my government in a difficult situation,” the former military chief said. “There was just one person that had everything to gain from Benazir’s assassination and that was Asif Ali Zardari,” he added, proceeding into what he termed as his analysis of the case. He added, “Zardari was in power for five years, why did he not look into the case, why was the investigation not active — because he was involved in Benazir’s murder.” Going further into his analysis Musharraf said, “The evidence is clear that Baitullah Mehsud and his people were involved in the murder, but who had asked them to target Benazir Bhutto — it could not have been me, the group hated me and the feeling was mutual.” “It is a known fact that I wanted Mehsud dead and so did the government of Pakistan, after his group had attempted to kill me,” Musharraf added. On 31 August, an Anti-Terrorist Court in Rawalpindi acquitted five alleged operatives of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for want of evidence over the assassination of Benazir in a gun and suicide attack in Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007.