UN Comission Report on Benazir Bhutto Murder–>Initial response

United Nations has just released the report of UN fact-finding mission for Benazir Murder Case. Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi in December 2007  during her election rally.

 

The commission headed by Heraldo Munoz, the U.N. representative from Chile, comments, “Bhutto’s assassination could have been prevented if adequate security measures had been taken.”

 

It also says :

 

 “The commission believes that the failure of the police to investigate effectively Ms. Bhutto’s assassination was deliberate.” Also, “ The officials, in part fearing intelligence agencies’ involvement, were unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew as professionals, they should have taken.” 

Note that the purpose of UN commission was fact-finding not fixing the responsibility. 

 

 

 

The main points are :

 

1 ) Musharraf government failed to provide proper security to Benazir Bhutto. The responsibility for this failure is on police and intelligence agencies including ISI,MI and IB.

2 ) Negotiations were going on between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf but no agreement was made. Musharraf was not in favor of Benazir’s arrival in Pakistan at that time.

3 ) Musharraf government washed all the conclusive evidence. Only 23 pieces of evidence were provided and for this scale of incident usually thousands of pieces are preserved to investigate the truth.

4 ) The press conference of Brigadier Cheema of Interior Ministry was misleading in which responsibility was put on Baitullah Mehsud without investigation.

5 ) PPP’s own security team also failed to protect Benazir Bhutto despite PPP having so many people willing to give their lives for Bhutto.

6 ) Rehman Malik denied that he was responsible for Benazir’s physical security. UN commission finds Rehman Malik’s argument not factual as he was continuously in touch with establishment for Benazir’s security and was looking after the arrangements.

7 ) CPO Saud Aziz was responsible for not allowing the postmortem and washing the crime scene.

8 ) The car, in which Rehman Malik was sitting, left Benazir’s car alone which also decreased the level of security.

 

 

10 ) It is said that a 15 years old boy conducted the suicide blast but UN commission says a 15 years old boy cannot do all this alone. 

11 ) Threat to Benazir’s life was from Extremist elements but role of establishment cannot be overlooked in this. 

　 

Now few things which immediately come to my mind are: 

1) Why Musharraf was given a safe exit when even PPP workers think he was responsible for BB’s murder? Was it due to the fact that Mr. Zardari was one of the beneficiaries or it was due to some pressure? 

2) Why the key responsible persons continued to work on their positions without proper accountability during the government of PPP including interior ministry officers, police officers, intelligence agency officers including former DG MI Nadeem Ijaz, former ISI head and Vice Army Chief General Kiyani? 

3) Kiyani is now Army Chief and was representing Musharraf during NRO deal. Will he allow further investigation on the role of ISI, MI,Musharraf and Kiyani himself? 

4) In Rehman Malik’s car, two other persons were also sitting. These two persons are Babar Awan and Musharraf’s close friend and former Core Commander Mangla Lt. General (R) Tauqir Zia(who was also the Chairman PCB during Musharraf time). Will some probe them for their role and negligence? 

5) Why the government of Pakistan delayed UN Commission Report for 15 days (till 15th April 2010)? Even though UN Commission didn’t conduct any new interview after 31st March 2010 as opposite to the government’s claim that the Commission is requested to conduct few interviews. Rehman Malik even yesterday revised the same claim. 

6) Will this murder go into the dustbin of Waziristan or some serious investigations will be done to investigate this high-profile murder? 

 

Report can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Pakistan/UN_Bhutto_Report_15April2010.pdf

 
Lets see if millions of dollars invested by a poor nation on this report will be of any use or not?

I hope some serious and independent investigation and trial will be conducted for this murder.

 

9 ) Commission didn’t find evidence against Asif Zardari’s and any of the family members’ involvement in this murder.