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| Baitullah denies hand in Benazir’s assassination |
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Javed Afridi
PESHAWAR: Militant commander Baitullah Mehsud, accused of masterminding the suicide attack that killed former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, has rejected the allegations as baseless.
“We are equally grieved by the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto and extend our sympathies to her family and party workers in this hour of grief,” said Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud and his Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a conglomerate of all the militant organisations operating in tribal areas as well as the settled districts of the NWFP.
Baitullah Mehsud, Ameer or central leader of the recently-formed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, was accused by the Interior Ministry Spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema of sending the suicide bomber who blew himself up near the vehicle of Benazir Bhutto outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
Maulvi Omar, who made a call to The News from an undisclosed location, on Saturday said Baitullah Mehsud, while sensing the gravity of the allegations levelled against him, convened an emergency meeting of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Shura comprising senior militant commanders at a secret place somewhere between South and North Waziristan tribal region to clarify his position.
“Why on earth would we kill her? We had no enmity with her and more importantly she had done no wrong to us,” Maulvi Omar said while quoting Baitullah Mehsud as telling the Shura meeting.
He said that it was against the teachings of Islam and Shariah as well as the centuries old rich traditions of the tribal people not to harm a woman and added that the government allegations against the militant commander were part of face-saving moves it had resorted to ever since the incident took place.
“By blaming us for the murder of an important political leader like Benazir Bhutto, the government is in fact misguiding the world. Planning such actions is simply beyond our imagination,” he claimed.
“We want to assure the Pakistan People’s Party leaders and its workers that we can’t even think of killing their leader. We are with them in this hour of grief and sorrow,” claimed the militants’ spokesman.
He alleged that the government was attempting to portray the tribal areas as centres of terrorists so as to earn dollars from, what he termed as, Western masters. “This is why they keep the tribal belt in continuous grip of violence.”
Accusing the secret agencies for the crime, he said the modus operandi and precision of the strike revealed that the gruesome act was committed by professional hands.
It may be recalled here that Baitullah Mehsud was also accused of threatening Benazir Bhutto with suicide attacks upon her arrival in Pakistan that he later denied.
The militant commander at that time said he had never thought of such an attack as he knew that it would kill innocent people.
Maulvi Omar said they had time and again disowned the statement attributed to Baitullah Mehsud regarding the suicide attacks on Benazir Bhutto upon her return from abroad, but lamented that certain people conveniently ignored the same to promote their interests.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
