SP Ashfaq Anwer’s statement confirms rogue elements’ role in Benazir Bhutto’s murder – by Kamran Shafi

Good news at last
By Kamran Shafi

IT is one of the best pieces of news this year, yes, even more than the Supreme Court’s (SC) sagaciously and correctly signalling that parliament could legislate amendments to the constitution by not throwing the 18th Amendment or even a part of it out of court.

The news is that SP Ashfaq Anwar who had been deployed to provide security to the late and much lamented Benazir Bhutto has turned approver against other senior policemen suspected of having a hand, if not in her cold-blooded and horrific murder, at least in its criminal cover-up. SP Ashfaq has reportedly denied this impression.

The most damning of all is his allegation that, as we thought, it was none other than a senior police officer who gave the orders to hose down the scene of the crime almost immediately after the assassination, obliterating any and all forensic evidence that might have been collected from there as should have happened, and as does happen when the target(s) are not high-profile political leaders who are on the wrong side of the Deep State.

Cases in point: the suicide hit on the good and well-spoken of surgeon general of the army on The Mall in Rawalpindi when the road was closed off for a whole day, the hit on the bus carrying ISI personnel in Westridge when that road was closed off for several days; even when lawyers were hit by a blast in GPO chowk, Lahore.

The second most shocking revelation in his statement is that a plain SHO stood in the way of an autopsy on poor Benazir.

We are Pakistanis who have lived and grown old in this country — can we ever believe that a lowly inspector of police could on his own prevent the autopsy of as powerful a political leader as Benazir Bhutto? Or that a senior superintendent of police could order the hosing down the scene of the crime all on his own? No sirs, no!

Both the orders had to come from the very top because the people at the top apparently knew well that it was no suicide bomber whose detonation of his charge made Benazir fall down into the jeep and hit her head on the sun-roof lever so hard that her brains oozed out.

They knew that it was the pistol shooter, plainly visible in video-film record of the murder, who shot her in the upper left side of her neck, the bullet exiting from the right side of her head. I am sorry for being so graphic, reader, but what do you do other than kick the Deep State in the teeth when it not only is at least an accessory to a crime of this proportion, but takes us lay citizens for so many fools?

As an aside, how many of us remember Brigadier Cheema (I think his name was), trying to sell the theory of the lever at a press conference after being briefed by none other than a director of the Mother of All Agencies as he himself later admitted?

The man’s mouth was dry; he was groping for words; his hands were shaking, and he generally looked as if he had seen several ghosts a mere minute ago. What a sorry and shameful performance that was, by a hanger-on of a sorry and shameless dictatorship.

Why, you might ask, is it that I say that this is even better news than the SC judgment? Because, friends, far too many of Pakistan’s political leaders have been done to violent death without the perpetrators ever coming to justice. Start from Liaquat Ali Khan, go to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then to Benazir, and you will see the dark and dirty hands of the Deep State behind every one of those awful assassinations.

One hopes that the deposition of SP Anwar will be acted upon and that the case will reach a conclusion in a court of law, in which everyone even remotely connected with the case, no matter what their station at the time of the killing of that brave woman, will be questioned and if remotely suspect will be proceeded against. This country has seen enough bloody interventions by those that would not let democracy grow and prosper.

Source: Dawn, 26 Oct 2010

Related articles:

Report of the UN commission on Benazir Bhutto’s assassination: General Musharraf and the ISI indicted

The UN commission report on Benazir Bhutto’s murder and the ISI’s spin-doctors – by Haider Nizamani

The UN Commission’s report on Benazir Bhutto’s murder is an indictment of Pakistan’s army and intelligence agencies – by Syed Talat Hussain

They killed Benazir Bhutto and this is how it happened – by Anas Abbas

Shame all around – by Kamran Shafi

Benazir Bhutto Case: Access Denied is Justice Denied – by Anas Muhammad

Who murdered Benazir Bhutto? – by Christina Lamb

Questions, more questions about the ISI’s involvement in Benazir Bhutto’s murder – by Kamran Shafi

Investigation of Benazir Bhutto’s murder by a committee and a half – By Kamran Shafi

They killed Benazir Bhutto and this is how it happened – by Anas Abbas

Who killed Benazir Bhutto? Who really is Qari Saifullah Akhtar? – by Yousuf Nazar

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