July 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1429

WASHINGTON, July 29: Drifting away from his government’s official position on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is hinting during his visit to Washington that she was killed by militants.

“And that is because I have lost my own leader, Benazir Bhutto, because of the militants,” said the prime minister while addressing the media with US President George W. Bush on Monday.

Later in the evening he told CNN: “I’ve lost my own leader, Benazir Bhutto, because of this terrorism and extremism.”

This is close to the US position on Ms Bhutto’s murder. A CIA report, which was also endorsed by President Bush and other senior members of the administration, blames Baitullah Mehsud for her death.

The PPP and its partners in the government, however, reject the suggestion saying that it’s yet to be determined who killed Ms Bhutto.

The government has already requested the United Nations to hold an inquiry into the murder.

In the CNN interview, when the prime minister was asked about the US missile strike in Fata on Monday, he said: “Actually, because I’m here, I wanted to collect more details, but I have already talked to President Bush that there should be more cooperation on intelligence side, so that when there is a credible and actionable information given to us, we will hit ourselves,” said Mr Gilani.

The anchor countered his argument by saying that the Americans did not trust Pakistan and that’s why they did not share intelligence with them.

“Basically, Americans are a little impatient. Therefore, in future, I think we’ll have more cooperation on intelligence side and we’ll do the job ourselves, because...,” said the prime minister.

“Because this is a violation of Pakistani sovereignty,” the interviewer added.

“Certainly, yes, if it is proved like this, it is certainly, yes,” said Mr Gilani.

The interviewer reminded him that in the joint media appearance on Monday President Bush defended the action.

“I said we should not -- unilaterally should not be done, so we must have more cooperation with each other. And it’s our job, because we are fighting the war for ourselves,” said Mr Gilani.