Finger-pointing begins after assassination

BENAZIR BHUTTO was the target of threats from virtually all of the militant groups who make Pakistan their home — from al-Qaida to homegrown terrorists to tribal insurgents on the Afghan border.

Her assassination after a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi also focused anger and suspicion on the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

The former prime minister blamed al-Qaida, the Taliban and homegrown militants for an October 18 suicide bombing that tore through a procession welcoming her back from exile to lead her opposition party in parliamentary elections. But she accused militant “sympathisers” in Mr Musharraf’s administration of backing the attempt on her life. Bhutto’s supporters chanted “Killer, Killer, Musharraf!” outside the hospital where she was pronounced dead on Thursday.

Mr Musharraf blamed Islamic terrorists, pledging that “we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out”.

Al-Qaida number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, decried Ms Bhutto’s return in a video message this month and called for attacks on all the candidates in the January 8 elections.

Ms Bhutto was also labelled an infidel by groups such as Jaish-ul

Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, which were spawned by Pakistan’s military and intelligence services to take on neighbouring India in the disputed Kashmir region.

The groups later aligned themselves with al-Qaida and have vowed to battle foreign troops in Afghanistan, and wage war against the Pakistani military for its support of the US-led anti-terror campaign.

“I think by far the most likely [suspect] is the al-Qaida organisation, which has been trying to kill Bhutto for the better part of the decade,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior director for South Asia on the National Security Council.

“If it’s not them, it’s certainly one of the groups that are sympathetic with them,” said Mr Riedel. “They all work together and share a common antipathy to Bhutto because she’s a woman, an advocate of secularism, a supporter of democracy and everything they stand against.”

Meanwhile, Switzerland said yesterday it had closed an investigation into Benazir Bhutto for alleged money laundering but a parallel probe into her husband’s activities continued.

A three-year investigation into allegations that Ms Bhutto used Swiss banks to launder millions of dollars in kickbacks has been closed, her lawyer Alec Reymond said. Ms Bhutto had denied the charges.

Mr Reymond said proceedings would continue against Ms Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and another unnamed individual.