Bhutto blamed Ejaz Shah for plots to kill her

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

1. The murderers of Benazir Bhutto will probably never be known. But circumstantial evidence suggests that several of Pakistan's leading figures had cause to benefit from her removal and should be questioned about the assassination at the very least.

2. Troublingly, these individuals have also been accused of links with al-Qaeda and the Taliba'an.

3. The close relationship that these figures enjoyed with General Musharraf might remain as the proverbial skeletons in Pakistan's cupboard.

Will the murderers of Benazir Bhutto ever be known and bought to justice? Probably not. But we do know there were powerful individuals who wanted Bhutto out of the way; allegedly including serving and retired generals, present and past intelligence chiefs, an international businessman suspected of connections to a terrorist bombing, and the son of a former military dictator.

Moreover, it is believed by well informed Pakistanis that all these top people have been tacitly colluding with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden – or at least not seriously attempting to track him down and bring him to justice. In fact, al Qaeda and the Pakistani establishment are, to some extent, two sides of the same coin, in that they are anti-democrats and promoters or appeasers of religious fundamentalism. and former member of the provincial assembly,

Former president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf's military and intelligence colleagues were, for example, responsible for the killing of two democratic, secular and anti-Taliba'an leaders from the rebel Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The former Governor and Chief Minister, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, was assassinated in 2006,[1] Mir Balaa'ch Marri was bumped off last November.[2] These murders are evidence that Musharaaf's men were capable of the assassination of political opponents. All this happened when the present army chief, Genral Pervez Kayani was the chief of the infamous Inter Services Intelligence.

The key person who stood to gain from Bhutto's death was President Musharraf himself. With Bhutto dead, a key election rival was conveniently out of the way.

Of course, Musharraf was not the only person to gain from the assassination. Other beneficiaries were intelligence bureau chief, Brigadier Ejaz Shah, and former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General Hamid Gul. The latter blames Bhutto for not letting him become army chief. Gul is, to boot, widely seen as Musharraf's alter ego.

Gul and Shah - along with former Punjab chief minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi -were among those named by Bhutto herself prior to her assassination, but none of them have been interviewed as far as we know, let alone arrested and charged with her murder.[3]

As Bhutto's relationship with US administration officials warmed up, unbeknown to her, these dangerous players in Pakistan politics - with whom Osama bin Laden reportedly has had ties - were closely following her moves.

From Bhutto's plane trip to Colorado with Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad, the former Permanent US Representative to the United Nations, to her phone talk with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, just a week before her return to Pakistan, she was on the radar of both Pakistani intelligence and terrorists alike.

Pakistan has misled the world into believing that it was incapable of arresting bin Laden and Taliba'an leader Mullah Omar. But after Bhutto met Khalilzad, it is alleged that Musharraf secretly met Khalilzad's chief nemesis – the one-eyed Mullah Omar - in the Pakistan garrison city of Quetta, bordering Afghanistan.

"Musharraf met Mullah Omar before and after his visit to Saudi Arabia, within a period of just three weeks," claimed one senior official in Quetta (the capital of Pakistani-occupied Baluchistan), although this claim has been impossible to verify. The official said it was impossible to prove the meetings took place, given the secretive and deceptive nature of Pakistan's body politic and its draconian muzzling of journalists and press censorship. But Afghan president Hamid Karzai has repeatedly alleged that Mullah Omar is hiding out in Quetta.[4]

One of Musharraf's main mentors, General Mahmud Ahmed, who conducted the masterstroke of catapulting Musharraf into power, is rumored to have had contacts with Mullah Omar. Ahmed, a former chief of the ISI, has been accused by some people of having financial dealings that link him to the 9/11 attacks on the US.[6]

In autumn 2007, declassified US documents finally acknowledged high level Pakistani links with the Taliba'an.[7]

It is perhaps not a coincidence that the city where Bhutto was assassinated, Rawalpindi,is the headquarters of the Pakistani army. This is the world's fifth largest army, and a nuclear-armed one. It is also imbued with religious fervor. The soldiers of the Pakistani army chant "Allah O' Akbar" as part of their daily drill.

Ever since Pakistan's inception in August 1947, Rawalpindi has had the dubious distinction of being a place where other civilian prime ministers have also met their deaths. Prior to Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was gunned down there on 18 October, 1951. Not far away once stood the jail where her father, former President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged on 4April 1979.

The city is also home to Ejazul Haq, another possible suspect in Bhutto's murder. He is the son of General Zia ul Haq, who died, along with US Ambassador Arnie Raphel, in an air crash on the 17August 1988. Haq the younger was Religious Affairs Minister in Pakistan's federal cabinet.

The Haqs have a pathological dislike of Bhuttos. Indeed, it was General Zia ul Haq who hanged Benazir Bhutto's father. When asked why he felt he had to kill Bhutto, the late General is aid to have responded, "There was one grave and two people - myself and Bhutto. So I sent Bhutto to it."

This history of personal, family and political rivalry is one reason why many people in Pakistan suspect Ejazul Haq might have had a hand in Benazir's Bhutto's killing.

Of course, Pakistani government officials have sought to pin the blame on rebel commander Baitullah Mehsud. Interestingly, one of Mehsud's spokespeople called foreign news services to deny the Pakistani claim. Mehsud normally loves to boast about his triumphs, so this denial was significant.

A brother of Pakistan-supported Taliba'an warrior Abdullah Mehsud, the younger Mehsud has had a meteoric rise as chief of the shadowy Tehrik-i-Taliba'an in southern Waziristan. A news report has said Mullah Omar has expelled him from the Taliba'an over tactical differences.[8]

Mehsud was not playing Omar's game of colluding with Pakistan army. He was confronting the Pakistan army, instead of attacking NATO troops. Given the links between Omar and the Pakistani military establishment, such attacks on Islamabad's forces were destablising and unacceptable, which is why Omar removed Mehsud and the army launched the recent operation against Mehsud.

For example, Musharraf had repeatedly claimed that Daud Ebrahim is not in Pakistan. Ebrahim is allegedly implicated in the killing of 250 people in Mumbai on 12 March 1993; supposedly in retribution for Hindu extremists taking over Babri Mosque.[10]

Moreover, just two years ago, it is said that Musharraf was sufficiently close to Ebrahim for Ebrahim to invite him to attend his daughter's wedding to the son of Pakistan's former test cricket legend, Javaid Miandad, in Dubai.[11]

While in Dubai in the late eighties and early nineties, Ebrahim and bin Laden had extensive contacts, as both were multi-millionaire business people and moved in similar circles - one was reputedly in smuggling and the other in real estate. Today, both are in Pakistan and Ebrahim's men appear to be looking after bin Laden's business interests, which critics allege - although this is unproven - involves various dubious financial and commercial operations. The US suspects Ebrahim of abetting bin Laden's global operations.[12]

But most importantly in this tangled trail of suspicion, the name of the assassin plotter that Benazir Bhutto herself allegedly mentioned to Musharraf before her arrival in Pakistan was that of Ejaz Shah, director of the country's intelligence bureau.

Ejaz Shah was the man who "monitored" and "handled" bin Laden for nearly two decades both in his present position and in his previous postings in the Pakistani intelligence. He was almost certain to lose his job had Benazir Bhutto been elected as prime minister of Pakistan.[14]

Shah, a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army, is the same man who failed to act against Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh,[15]

A Musharraf protégé to the very end, Shah was in charge of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operations in Kashmir. At the time of Daniel Pearl's killing, Shah was the Home Secretary - the top law official - of Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab.

At the same time of Pearl's abduction, the ISI kidnapped TIME correspondent Ghulam Hasnain – some say in retribution for his expose of Daud Ebrahim's lavish lifestyle in the investigative monthly Newsline.[17]

Incredibly, the link between the two abductions escaped media attention. Hasnain was badly tortured during his abduction, and arrived in the US, ostensibly to seek asylum but he later returned to Pakistan to continue with his professional life.[18]

However, Pearl was not so lucky and, shockingly, Musharraf seemed to blame Pearl for inviting his own death.

Over the years, Ejaz Shah has wriggled his way up the greasy pole. He is considered Musharraf's close friend and has allegedly conducted special operations for him in the past, like his infamous attempt to silence rape victim Mukhtar Mai.[19]

As part of his job, Shah is said to have been in regular contact with the likes of Osama bin Laden, Daud Ebrahim and Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh.[20]

In an interview with David Frost, Bhutto clearly identified Shah as the person wanting to see her dead and mentioned his links with Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.[21] In an apparent slip of tongue, instead of naming Daniel Pearl she said Sheikh had murdered Osama bin Laden during the live telecast.

Bin Laden's personal dislike for Benazir Bhutto was an open secret. His hatred stemmed primarily from his world view that women should not lead Muslim societies. Most Muslim men (and many Muslim women) still believe the ancient religious teaching that women are inferior to men and unfit for high office. Bin Laden is said to have offered huge sums of money to Pakistani legislators to oust Bhutto through a vote of no-confidence as early as her first term as elected prime minister of Pakistan (1988-90).

"Bin Laden operatives approached us with bag-loads of money," recalled Mir Hasil Bizenjo, secretary general of the National Party, who was then a member of the National Assembly.

At that time, Bhutto reported bin Laden's attempted interference in Pakistan politics to Saudi King Fahd. She mentioned the event in her revised autobiography Benazir Bhutto- Daughter of the East.[22]

So who really killed Benazir Bhutto? None of us know for sure. But one thing is certain, there are several plausible suspects and they all have links to former President Pervez Musharraf. At the very least, Musharraf and ISI leader Ejaz Shah can be accused of not providing Bhutto with adequate security measures. And as was unfortunately confirmed, poor security made her assassination possible.

Her spouse and the country's president Asif Ali Zardari has made peace with both Musharraf and Ejaz Shah, as per the diktat of the country's powerful army.

Ahmar Mustikhan is a journalist from Baluchistan. He currently lives in the US and can be reached at ahmar_reporter@yahoo.com

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5289880.stm

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7106270.stm

[3] http://video.aol.com/video-detail/karachi-probe-bhutto-names-suspects/1991470969

[4] http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/27/bush.leaders/index.html

[6] http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html & http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/SheikhMahmood.htm

[7] http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm

[8] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JA24Df03.html

[10] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2781853.stm & http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4711615.stm

[11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4711615.stm

[12] http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2003/10/sec-031016-usia01.htm

[14] http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.voterigging/

[15] http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/SheikhMahmood.htm

[17] http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsSept2001/coverstory1.htm

[18] http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/28/pakistan.missing.journalist/

[19] http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[20] http://www.himalayanaffairs.org/articledetails.asp?id=330

[21] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

[22] http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/apr/10bhutto.htm

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