KARACHI: A decade on from Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, former dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf has suggested that some people in the establishment could have been involved in her murder.

It’s a startling statement from the former president because military officials usually don’t admit to state complicity in militant or terrorist attacks.

When asked by the BBC whether or not rogue elements within the establishment could have been in touch with Taliban militants about the killing, Gen Musharraf replied: “Possibility. Yes indeed. Because the society is polarised on religious lines.”

Those elements, he said, could have had a bearing on her death.

Ex-president however says he doesn’t have specific information on the issue

Asked whether he had specific information about such rogue elements in the establishment, he said: “I don’t have any facts available. But my assessment is very accurate I think... A lady who is known to be inclined towards the West is seen suspiciously by those elements.”

In the Benazir case, Gen Musharraf has himself been charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation for murder. Prosecutors say he phoned the former prime minister in Washington on Sept 25, 2007, three weeks before she ended eight years in self-imposed exile.

Long-serving Bhutto aide Mark Siegel said he was with her when the call came in. According to him, immediately after the call the former premier said: “He threatened me. He told me not to come back. He warned me not to come back.”

Gen Musharraf said he would not be responsible for what would happen to Benazir Bhutto if she returned, Mr Siegel told the BBC. “And he said that her safety, her security was a function of her relationship with him.”

The former military dictator denies making the call and dismisses the idea that he would have ordered her murder. “Honestly I laugh at it,” he recently told the British media organisation. “Why would I kill her?”

The legal proceedings against Gen Musharraf have stalled because he is in self-imposed exile in Dubai. Benazir Bhutto’s son and political heir, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, has repeatedly rejected his denials.

“Musharraf exploited this entire situation to assassinate my mother,” he said. “He purposely sabotaged her security so that she would be assassinated and taken off the scene.”

While Musharraf’s case is on hold, other suspects in the case have been acquitted of the crime. Within weeks of the assassination, five people had confessed to helping a 15-year-old militant, Bilal, assassinate Bhutto at the behest of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Even though these confessions were subsequently withdrawn, phone records showing the suspects’ locations and communications in the hours before Bhutto’s murder seem to corroborate them. Hasnain Gul, a suspect, also led the police to some physical evidence in his apartment.

DNA from Bilal’s body parts gathered after his attack and tested in a US lab matched the DNA on some training shoes, cap and a shawl Bilal had left behind in Hasnain’s residence when he put on his suicide vest.

Just a few months ago prosecutors were confident these alleged plotters would be convicted. But in September the case collapsed, with the judge declaring that procedural errors in the way the evidence was gathered and presented to the court meant he had to acquit them.

The five are still in detention pending an appeal.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2017