ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The founding Amir of Harkat Al Jihad-e-Islami, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, has denied having played any role in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but has disclosed that he had been in contact with former ISI chief Lt. General Hameed Gul and two other army officers who had attempted to stage a coup to topple her government in 1995.

“I was in touch with Lt. General Hameed Gul, Major General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and former Brigadier Mustensar Billa,” Qari Saifullah said in a 35-page statement submitted to the Joint Investigation Team.A copy of the statement is available with Dawn.

Benazir Bhutto in her last book “Reconciliation: Islam Democracy and The West” had named Qari Saifullah as one of the perpetrators of the October 18, 2007, attack on her welcome rally.

But Qari Saifullah had been given a clean chit by investigation teams set up by former and present regimes for lack of evidence.

Qari Saifullah said he had nothing to do with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and he had come to know about it from a newspaper report on December 28 when he was in Lahore.

Replying to investigator’s question, Saifullah declared Benazir a martyr and said her death was a great loss.

He said he believed in Jihad and would wage it till his death.

However, he said he was against the attacks being carried out in the country.