Inspector General of Islamabad Police Bin Yamin has said that the Tehrik-i-Taliban was involved in the assassination of Minorities Affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
The police chief was briefing a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, chaired by Senator Talha Mahmood. It had earlier been reported that family rivalry and not religious victimisation had claimed Bhatti’s life.
In a report, the police investigators had concluded that it was not a religiously-motivated murder despite the fact that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the assassination. Bhatti was shot as he left his mother’s home in a residential area of Islamabad.
Yamin said that the roots of the Islamic University suicide attack extended to several countries. In the last four years, 21 acts of terror have been carried out in Islamabad, whereas, street crimes have increased since last year, he told the committee.
The channel reported that the committee expressed dissatisfaction over the briefing by the police chief and protested against the absence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik from the meeting. It is pertinent to mention here that the Interior minister is in Karachi.
Taliban involved in Bhatti’s murder, police told Senate committee
