THE BENAZIR BHUTTO MURDER

"You can name Musharraf my assassin if I am killed." These were the words Benazir Bhutto had uttered twice during a one-on-one, off-the-record conversation with me, hardly a few weeks before her tragic assassination. I met her on November 13, 2007 at the residence of Senator Latif Khosa, a few hours before she had been placed under house arrest by the Punjab government to stop her from leading a long march to Islamabad against the Musharraf regime. Talking about attempt on her life in Karachi on October 18, 2007 after her return from exile, Benazir Bhutto said she knew quite well even before returning home that such a cowardly attempt would be made on her life. "And let me tell you that the Karachi suicide bombings could not have been possible without Musharraf’s blessing." Almost a month after returning home and barely escaping a horrifying suicide attack on her cavalcade the same night in Karachi, Bhutto had reached Lahore and was staying at Senator Latif Khosa’s residence in the Defence area. My meeting with Bhutto actually took place after a dinner, which was attended by a few senior Pakistani journalists, including myself. In one corner of the room, there were two armchairs in which we two settled down… Then she said… "I actually want to share some important information with you, but you must promise that you will never quote me as your source." I agreed and Bhutto began, "Do you know who was involved in the suicide attack on my welcome procession on October 18?’ I replied, "Those whom you have mentioned in your letter to General Musharraf." She had another question for me, "Do you know for whom these people work?" I replied, "For Musharraf." She probed further, "So what does this mean?" It was now my turn to ask questions. "Do you doubt General Musharraf’s intentions?" She said: "Off the record, I would say I do not doubt his intentions. I am sure of his involvement and my assumption is based on reliable information." I was taken aback. I asked her, "If this is true, why don’t you make it public?" She said, "I can’t do that because of the reconciliatory milieu. The general did not want me to return to Pakistan before the elections, and he is furious that I have come home before the polls as it could disturb his gameplan."

Bhutto then told me that a couple of weeks before her arrival, Musharraf had sent her this message, "The law and order situation in Pakistan is awry. Also, the religious fanatics and jehadis are outraged because of your anti-jehadi statements that were lapped up by the Pakistani media, especially in the aftermath of the Lal Masjid episode. So you are advised not to come to Pakistan before the 2008 general elections." Then she added, "But I conveyed to him in clear terms that whatever the circumstances, I would definitely come to Pakistan to lead my party in the polls. In return, I was given yet another warning: "The government is concerned about your security since we have credible intelligence information that several extremists groups and individuals are planning to kill you." She said that she had pointed out that if the agencies had prior information of the murder plans, they were, of course, in a position to arrest the planners as well. Her rebuttal had fetched her no reply from Musharraf or his administration. "I have come to know, following investigations by my own sources, that the suicide attack on my welcome procession in Karachi, on October 18, 2007, was masterminded by some highly-placed officials in the Pakistani security and intelligence establishment. My enemies in the establishment had first engaged a jehadi leader linked to al-Qaeda, Qari Saifullah Akhtar (the ameer of the Pakistan chapter of the Harkatul Jehadul Islami, who had been involved in a failed coup attempt against Benazir Bhutto’s government in 1995). He, in turn, hired one Maulvi Abdul Rehman Otho alias Abdul Rehman Sindhi, a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant from the Dadu district of Sindh, to carry out the Karachi suicide attacks."

Bhutto said that according to credible sources Abdul Rehman Sindhi (who was reportedly arrested in June 2004 from Khuda Ki Basti area in Kotri near the Hyderabad district of Sindh province for his involvement in the February 2002 suicide car bombing outside the US Cultural Centre building in Karachi) was mysteriously released by the Pakistani authorities shortly before her return home, citing lack of evidence to proceed against him. I could not help saying, "How could Qari Saifullah Akhtar be a suspect when he himself is behind bars for his alleged involvement in masterminding the twin suicide attacks on Musharraf in Rawalpindi, way back in December 2003? As far as I know, Qari is still in jail." Bhutto muttered, "I also thought so. But his release has already been confirmed by those close to the Musharraf administration. I subsequently conveyed to some of Musharraf’s key people, through my close aides, that various events such as the strange release of a dreaded jehadi like Qari Saifullah Akhtar have convinced me that any attack on me would not be possible without the consent of those in power." I asked her, "Whether I could report a few bits of the information you have shared with me." She smiled and said, "The reason I wanted to see you alone was to pass on some news which you can report. It is related to the October 18, 2007 terrorist attack. You should, however, countercheck whatever information I provide, and if you find any discrepancies, please let me know." She continued, "Actually, while I was still in London during the second week of October [2007], I had been informed by my sources in the [Pakistani] intelligence that there was every chance of someone trying to kill me; and that the blame would then be shifted to the jehadis. I had also been informed that some retired and serving army and intelligence officers had tasked some jehadielements with my assassination."

Bhutto continued, "When I probed deeper, I was amazed to find that the handlers had paid 30 million rupees to their agent Abdul Rehman Sindhi so that he could arrange suicide bombers to target my procession in Karachi. My sources say Sindhi had once worked for the former chief operational commander of al-Qaeda, Abu Zubaidah, who was arrested from Faisalabad in March 2002. I was surprised to learn that a man with such strong connections with al-Qaeda was simply set free by the security agencies because they claimed that they did not have enough proof to proceed against him. I had written a letter to Musharraf before coming to Pakistan, after I had received information from the Karzai government in Afghanistan, about the plans for my assassination. I passed on this information to him and had also furnished the names of some of the people who were directly involved in the planning." When I tried to find out the names of the people involved, Bhutto only said she had put down their names in her letter to Musharraf, besides naming them in the FIR lodged with the Karachi police after the October 18 suicide attacks, stating that those mentioned in the letter need to be investigated. According to her, most of those who had planned and carried out the Karachi bombings were affiliated with the ISI. These included a close aide of General Pervez Musharraf — the director general of the IB, Brigadier (retd) Ejaz Hussain Shah who was earlier the provincial chief of the ISI, Punjab. "That Ejaz Shah has close contacts with jehadi elements is not a hidden fact," said Bhutto. "It is a reality that [Sheikh Ahmed] Omar Saeed, who is the prime accused in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, was acting as an agent of the ISI and his handler was none other than Ejaz Shah himself. And it was the same Shah who had, as home secretary of Punjab, provided asylum to Omar Saeed for many days before he had finally surrendered." Bhutto said that the classified information that had been given to her by the Karzai government also contained the names and addresses of some of the people who had been involved in the Karachi suicide attack and that she had forwarded it to Musharraf, although she later came to know that the Karzai government had already shared the same information with the Pakistani authorities. "The most tragic part of the whole episode is that no action was taken in spite of having every minute bit of information about the October 18 assassination bid." Bhutto added, "It was only after the Karachi attack that I realised what a blunder I had committed by writing to Pervez Musharraf and naming his stooges alone. It did not occur to me at that time that I was in a way signing my own death warrant by not naming my number one enemy as one of my possible assassins. It later dawned upon me that Musharraf could have exploited my letter to his advantage." "What does that mean?" I asked. "While writing that letter to General Musharraf, it never occurred to me that I was actually giving a clean chit to my worst enemy — a mistake that could bear serious consequences for me," she replied after a pause. Bhutto then said that while realising her blunder after the Karachi attack, she had already written yet another letter to someone important, naming her would-be assassins.

I had a volley of questions for her. Had she named Musharraf in that letter; and if yes, why would he hurt her when she was trying to negotiate with him; and to whom was the letter addressed. She smiled and said, "Mind one thing, Amir Sahib. All those in the establishment who stand to lose power and influence in the post-election [2008] setup are after me, including the general. I cannot give you any more details at the moment. You can, however, name Musharraf as my assassin if I am killed." I said, "God forbid, but as far as we know, General Musharraf had given the Americans a guarantee for your protection in Pakistan." She replied, "No, the general hasn’t given any such assurance to anyone. And he can be more vindictive than you can imagine. Even otherwise, a popular politician should never trust a military dictator." And the reason for Musharraf’s animosity against her? "I have almost made him shed his military uniform, which was like a second skin to him," she said. (Musharraf had to quit as the Chief of Army Staff on November 28, 2007, almost two weeks after my Lahore meeting with Bhutto.) "Now that I have staged a comeback, the general is between a rock and a hard place. He is under tremendous pressure to quit the presidency, shed his military uniform, and go home." "Does that mean that the US wants to get rid of Musharraf now?" She responded, "Any such thing would be possible only if the people of Pakistan want it to happen. The general has a fair idea that the people are still siding with Benazir and her People’s Party. That’s why he detests me and wants me to get out of his way, for I am the biggest hurdle for him."

I had more questions, "If you are so convinced that Musharraf could go to any extent and that the Karachi attack would not have been possible without his consent, have you made any move to protect yourself? Will you ever make this public?" She replied, "When it’s time, you will know more about it. For now, as I told you earlier, you can name Musharraf as my assassin in case I am murdered." "I hope no such thing ever happens, but even if it does, and I do name Musharraf as your assassin, what difference is it going to make? In my personal opinion, you should go public about these facts so that if he does have any such plans he’ll get defensive and might not proceed with them," I advised. Bhutto responded, "I believe he would get on the offensive if I made any such move, and would create even more problems for the party leadership, especially with regard to my participation in the forthcoming general elections. But this doesn’t mean I won’t do anything and let him get away with whatever he wants. I have already taken into confidence some important people in the right quarters. I have kept them informed of all these developments as well as my fears, so that my opponents understand that even if they are able to kill me, they could always be investigated, just as the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination was investigated by the United Nations." It was long after her death that I understood what she had meant when she had hinted at being in touch with the ‘right quarters’. She had sent an email to Wolf Blitzer of the CNN, which was dated October 26, 2007, a few days after the Karachi bombings targeting her welcome procession. Bhutto was eventually killed, her email was made public, but no action could be taken against her assassin because he himself was supervising the investigations.