Press TV (Iran) : Bhutto: gov't officials' hand in bombing

Bhutto: gov't officials' hand in bombing

MHE/RA | October 24, 2007

Benazir Bhutto says a close friend of the President Pervez Musharraf had been among three people who she accused of plotting against her.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sent three names to President General Pervez Musharraf of people with powerful positions in government who she accused of plotting an assassination attempt against her.

Bhutto thinks important figures from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and a head of a spy agency could be behind Thursday's attack.

The government has rejected Bhutto's claim that elements within the administration and security forces were trying to kill her.

Benazir Bhutto also accused the Pakistani government of staging a cover-up after it refused her request for British and American experts to join the inquiry into last Thursday's suicide bombing.

"If people have nothing to hide then they should be open to investigators from all over the world," the former prime minister told a press conference at her closely guarded Karachi home. "It's simply not right that attempts should be made to cover up an assassination attempt ... Obviously some people are being protected."

Meanwhile Ishrat ul Ebad Khan, the governor of Sindh province said that the bomb blasts targeting former premier Benazir Bhutto resembled attacks by al-Qaeda and their allied Pakistani militants and were the work of two suicide bombers.

The death toll had risen to 140, and included a couple with their one-year-old child. More than 500 people were wounded.