LAHORE, April 5: A Lahore High Court division bench on Tuesday granted bail to former Rawalpindi CPO Saud Aziz and SP Shahzad Khurram, accused of showing negligence in security arrangements which consequently caused assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto at Liaqat Bagh. The bench comprising Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Ijazul Ahsan allowed bails to petitioners subject to furnishing bail bonds of Rs1 million each. The bench, however, directed the authorities concerned to confiscate their passports.

Earlier, law officer Azhar Chaudhry in his arguments opposed the bail petition saying the higher authorities had assigned security of Benazir at Liaqat Bagh to Saud Aziz, but he neglected it and left the venue insecure.

He said the petitioner already knew that Benazir had threats from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader Baitullah Mashud and secret agencies had also issued a warning regarding the entry of two terrorists into Rawalpindi. But the petitioner failed to perform his duties which gave an open field to terrorists to fulfill their evil plan.

The law officer further said Benazir was driven through an insecure route instead of the secured one which was blocked by erecting containers.

A public prosecutor told the court that Saud Aziz had produced a forged letter attributed to President Asif Ali Zardari for stopping the autopsy of Benazir.

However, petitioner’s counsel presented before the court visual record of Zardari’s statements in the media along with complete transcript in which he stopped doctors from doing the autopsy. The counsel maintained that the petitioners had no link with the assassination of BB nor they decided on their own about the autopsy.

The bench after hearing both sides allowed bail to the petitioners.