Benazir murder case will remain unsolved, says new book

Heraldo Muñoz, the man who led the UN investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, has claimed in his new book that former Pakistani president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf’s government facilitated Benazir’s murder through its negligence.

In his book, Getting Away With Murder, he said the Tehreek-e-Taliban executed the attack, possibly backed or at least encouraged by elements in the establishment.

Muñoz also said local senior policemen attempted a cover-up whereas Bhutto’s lead security team failed to properly safeguard her.

He described that the incumbent army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, expressed doubts to him about the claim by former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf that Bhutto had been assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban.

Most Pakistani political actors would rather turn the page than continue investigating who was behind Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, he added.

The author described that Bhutto’s assassination would be another unsolved case in the long history of impunity in Pakistan, and that the controversy surrounding her assassination would endure as much as her memory.

On Tuesday, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi indicted former president Pervez Musharraf on murder charges in connection with the 2007 assassination of former Benazir Bhutto.

The decision by a court in Rawalpindi marks the first time Musharraf, or any former army chief in Pakistan, has been charged with a crime.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and stepped down from office in disgrace nearly a decade later, now faces a litany of legal problems.

Benazir Bhutto was killed in 2007 during a gun and bomb attack at a rally in the city of Rawalpindi, the sister city to the capital of Islamabad.

Her assassination set off protests across the country and helped propel her party to power in parliament and her husband to the presidency.

Bhutto’s supporters also say Musharraf ignored requests for additional security, and a 2010 UN report on her death said he failed to make serious efforts to ensure Bhutto s safety.