‘Most wanted’ in Benazir assassination resurfaces, denies involvement

A suspected militant alleged to have been part of the cell that murdered former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has appeared in a Taliban video denying his involvement, reported BBC. 

Ikramullah is believed to have been a back-up suicide bomber, who was meant to detonate his explosive vest if the first attacker did not succeed.

But officials say he walked away after the other bomber blew himself up, killing Bhutto and at least 20 others at a rally in Rawalpindi in 2007.

A senior Bhutto aide said he was lying.

In his first public statement on the case, Ikramullah appears in a video produced by a splinter group of the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) which was obtained by the BBC. It is believed to have been filmed in eastern Afghanistan, where the militants are based.

Described as a “senior figure” in his group, Ikramullah repeatedly states in the video he was neither “involved” nor “aware of” the plot to kill Bhutto. He is on a Pakistani list of most-wanted terror suspects and has been named in court as the second suicide bomber.

Senator Rehman Malik, a former interior minister who was a close friend of Bhutto’s, told the BBC that he believed Ikramullah was “totally lying”, and that other suspects had named him in court as the second bomber.

A source with knowledge of Pakistani militant groups told BBC that until recently Ikramullah was openly and proudly claiming his involvement. But last year he was attacked by other rival Islamists in Afghanistan, and his family received threats from the Pakistani security services. As a result, it is believed, he was advised by his group’s leaders to make a video denying his involvement.

The source told the BBC: “The whole of the Pakistani Taliban and even young children from the tribal areas know he was involved.”

Bhutto was elected as prime minister in 1988 and 1993. After a period in exile, she returned to Pakistan in 2007 to campaign for elections.

She survived an assassination attempt in October 2007 when suicide bombers targeted a parade welcoming her at Karachi airport. More than 150 people died.

Bhutto was killed two months later at a rally in Rawalpindi. Five alleged militants charged with involvement in the plot were last year acquitted, but remain in detention pending an appeal.

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban at the time, Baitullah Mehsud – who died in US strike in 2009 – denied that the group was responsible. However, many have speculated that this was prompted by the public backlash the attack received.

Pakistani intelligence officials said they had intercepted a phone conversation in which Baitullah Mehsud was told by an unnamed cleric that the attackers were “our men” and included Ikramullah, who was then about 16 years old.

Earlier this year, a book published by the TTP’s main faction on the history of the group acknowledged that despite earlier denials they had indeed carried out the attack, and again named Ikramullah as the second suicide bomber.