Pakistani authorities have arrested two senior police officers for negligence of duty over former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Almost three years after Bhutto was killed in the city of Rawalpindi, Saud Aziz, city police chief at the time and Khurram Shahzad, a senior policeman, were arrested on Wednesday for their failure to protect Bhutto.
Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said both officers “the court rejected their application for bail and the judge said ‘this was their duty to carry out the post-mortem,'” AFP reported.
The former police chief and his deputy are accused of failing to make proper arrangements for Bhutto’s post-mortem and for ordering a hose-down of the crime scene, getting rid of evidence which could have been key to solving the crime.
A UN report issued in April said the assassination could have been prevented.
The court has been adjourned until January 7.
Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in an attack when she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi. A gunman reportedly shot her in the neck and set off a bomb. At least 20 other people died in the attack and several more were injured.
Bhutto’s widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, who won the presidency after Bhutto’s death, has pointed the finger of blame at the then government of General Pervez Musharraf and threatened to take action against the former military ruler.
Police said they arrested five men in the weeks following Bhutto’s assassination and five other suspects remained at large, three of whom have been killed, including senior Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
Source: Press TV