Gainer in Bhutto's assassintaion

In the assassinations of Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951, Murtaza Bhutto in 1996 and Ms. Bhutto on 27 December, 2007, the person pulling the trigger is just an instrument of a far deeper conspiracy.

The ISPR, on the very next day of the assassination, was quick to blame Baitullah Mehsud for the assassination of Ms. Bhutto. Musharraf also in his televised speech of 3rd January stated that he was "sure" that Al-Qaeda was the author.

By linking Bhutto’s killing to Al-Qaeda, Musharraf conveniently gains several goals. First, he reinforces the myth of Al-Qaeda, something very useful to Washington at this time of growing global skepticism over the real intent of its "war on terror" and for the US voters that Al-Qaeda threat is prevalent every where. Musharraf would become more valuable to Washington in serving the “war on terror”. Also by this Musharraf serves (his masters) the western countries another serious opportunity to debate over the vulnerability of our nuclear weapons.

Second, it gives Musharraf a plausible scapegoat to blame for the elimination of a serious political rival to his consolidation of one-man rule. It is worth noting that those who hosed down the evidence of the crime scene did it with intent to hide or sabotage the inquest. We all know that we hide things when we do not want to take responsibility.

Third, of all the political leaders in Pakistan Ms. Bhutto would have been the best leader who could have forced Musharraf to leave. The only real opposition Musharraf would have faced after the elections would have been Ms. Bhutto. It is apparent now that PPP would gain the maximum number of seats (also owing to sympathy vote) Ms. Bhutto would not be there hence Musharraf would have an easy five years due to no real political opponent.

Fourth, not carrying out routine autopsy of Ms. Bhutto’s body again devoid us of empirical evidence and hides a lot of truth. Ms. Bhutto in her interview to David Frost made it clear she would clean out the Pakistan military and security services of corrupt and Islamist elements. This shows that she was becoming the greatest threat to the military and the agencies that supported fundamentals in and out of the military.

Finally, out of the four men Ms. Bhutto alleged in her email of 16th October to Musharraf who may be responsible for carrying out assassination attempts on her, three of them are staunch supporters of Musharraf. They were not even questioned in the inquiry of 18th October despite Ms. Bhutto publicly charging the government for not carrying out inquiry sincerely. These alleged men served in the governments and remained within Musharraf’s circle of trust till the assemblies were dissolved in November.

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Asim H. Akhund