JIT concludes Baitullah behind BB murder, Suicide bombers DNA matched

[sparklingway]

Benazir Bhutto investigation comes full circle
By Quatrina Hosain

May 27, 2010

The investigation concluded that former Tehrik-i-Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud was behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

ISLAMABAD: More than two years after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the investigation has come full circle.

A Joint Investigation Team constituted by the PPP government has verified that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led at the time by Baitullah Mehsud, carried out the attack that killed Bhutto. The JIT report submitted on Tuesday adds little to the information already made available by the interim government when Bhutto was assassinated. But some interesting elements have emerged.

One of the key conspirators, Hasnain Gul, who was arrested on January 5, 2008, had confessed that the two suicide bombers had stayed at his house a day before the assassination. The suicide bombers left a shawl, a cap and a pair of joggers at Hasnain’s residence. On Sept 12, 2009, some 20 months after the assassination, these articles of clothing were sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico for DNA analysis. The FBI report was then compared to the DNA obtained from body parts of the suicide bombers recovered from Liaquat Bagh.

That the two samples matched corroborated Gul’s confession and firmly linked the two suicide bombers with Mehsud’s network. Another connection has also been established by comparing cellular and landline phone records, which have linked the conspirators to each other and to the penultimate telephone conversation between a man identified as “Maulvi sahib” and “Ameer sahib”. That discussion of the assassination was intercepted by the Inter Services Intelligence shortly after Bhutto’s assassination and was made public by former president General Pervez Musharraf’s interim government. Ameer sahib was been identified as Baitullah Mehsud by one of the arrested men.

In another key revelation, the JIT report lists five men who are currently under arrest, one of whom is Gul, and seven others who were involved in the planning and the execution of the assassination. Topping the list is Baitullah Mehsud. The report indicates that of the men still at large, at least one – Abadur Rehman Farooq, who was last seen in Khyber Agency – is suspected of carrying out terrorist attacks in Peshawar for the TTP and al Qaeda. Almost all the conspirators have links to the Madrassah Haqqaniya in Akora Khattak and further arrests have been made by the JIT from Akora Khattak.

The implications of these revelations are not lost on Musharraf’s spokesman Major General (retd) Rashid Qureshi who believes that Musharraf’s stance has been vindicated and he is innocent. He told The Express Tribune that the JIT report confirmed what had been established by investigators at the time and termed as “crazy” anyone who suspects that Mehsud may have been hired by someone else. However, federal information minister Qamaruz Zaman Kaira was reluctant to comment on the report and its implications, telling The Express Tribune he had not yet read it but acknowledged that the JIT was set up by the PPP government.

The JIT questioned 34 people in connection with the investigation, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others in the car with Bhutto, former Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier (retd) Ejaz Shah, police officers, doctors who attended to Bhutto and others. Conspicuously absent from this list are federal ministers Rehman Malik and Babar Awan, who were strongly criticised in the UN report on Bhutto’s assassination. The JIT has reserved comment on the actions of police officers who hosed down the crime scene and failed to carry out autopsies on others who died at Liaquat Bagh that day, saying the statements of the police officers were contradictory.

A further report is awaited but it seems unlikely if anything will be uncovered other than panic and incompetence. Does this indicate that the People’s Party government has endorsed the previous government’s claim that Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of Mehsud? If so, this would pave the way for General Musharraf’s return to Pakistan without being arrested for Bhutto’s death. It also remains unclear why the government insisted on an investigation by the United Nations when evidence collated by their own investigative team’s findings has revealed no grand conspiracy beyond Mehsud and his men.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 27th, 2010.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

dill ko mutmain rakhnay ke liye
ye khiyal acha he ghalib

Any ways , BB is history now, unfortunately BM is being scapegoat to protect the real culprits, Though not in anyway support that AHole, but true culprits will get away unharmed eventually and thats not bad either.
There are number of things for which BB had rifts :
1. Possible halting of Nuclear and Conventional weapons program
2. The will of Handing Over AQ Khan to West for investigations
3. Taming ISI to follow the Gov Bid
4. Free Judiciary
5. WOT and its Political support.



She came back with great Zeal,She could have become the most powerfull leader of the Nation and that was unacceptable to some even the foreign people had there suspicions intact.
In my guess BBs murder was an understanding btw all the local and foreign actors. BM's case is like " Bud Acha Badnaam Bura "

But who knows BM might have killed her, in his statement he rejected this cause but one may wonders the credibility of these Irhabists. Who to trust .. Who to trust ..??.The culprits will never be caught and theres no problem in it too.

 

[gubbi]

And everyone gave poor Mush the wicked glares!

Though the assassination attempted succeeded and BM and his minions are at the heart of this murder, the fact is that the PPP's security apparatus did not do their jobs well!
Mush provided as much cover as he could, but ultimately wasnt BB's security in the hands of her party members? They did a lousy job, their heads should roll! Hope that security measures are strengthened by the party security officers for present and future leaders.

Anyway, a noobie question. Does Pakistan have central VVIP security forces like India's Special Protection Group or US's Secret Service?

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Gen Nadeem Ijaz cleared by FIA in BB case



Thursday, May 27, 2010
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: Top Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) investigators have given a clean chit to the former Director General of the Military Intelligence, Maj-Gen Nadeem Ijaz, and the then District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi, Irfan Elahi, in its probe into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

“We have found no evidence against them,” a senior official of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of FIA told The News in categorical terms. However, he said, the then City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Saud Aziz and the then Superintendent of Police Yasin Farooq had not so far been cleared. “There are contradictions and conflicts in the statements of Saud Aziz and other senior police officers including Khurram Shehzad and Ashfaq Anwar, posted at the Liaquat Bagh at the time, which they recorded with the JIT,” the official said and alleged that police officers also destroyed some of the evidence relating to the murder case.

He said that till the next date of hearing (June 12) of the anti-terrorism court (ATC), which held its proceedings in-camera at the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi on Wednesday, the JIT would possibly be able to complete its investigation. The official said that the presentation of interim challan in the ATC was no barrier in the way of the JIT to continue its investigation. “We have to get admissible evidence against the persons accused of the crime.”

Another senior FIA official said that his agency had still not received the report of the three-member fact finding committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Rauf Chaudhry. He said that the JIT was independently carrying out its criminal investigation into the assassination and was not dependent on the fact-finding report, which was confined to hosing down of the crime scene.

The Rauf Chaudhry committee report, submitted to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani some time back has simply been dumped for being inconsequential, as it has not even been handed over to the JIT.

The committee was formed immediately after the release of the report of the three-member UN Inquiry Commission on Benazir Bhutto’s murder. At the same time, Saud Aziz, Khurram Shehzad, Yasin Farooq, Ashfaq Anwar and Irfan Elahi were made Officers on Special Duty (OSD).

The official said that the JIT would continue examination of the concerned police officers till the logical conclusion of the investigation. One of these police officials told this correspondent that he was once again examined by the JIT a week back.

Asked about the number of new accused persons to be included the list, the official said investigations were in progress and nothing could be conclusively stated at this stage. Rashid, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and two cousins Rafaqat and Husnain lodged in Adiala Jail of Rawalpindi are being tried on the charge of Benazir Bhutto’s murder.

Gen Nadeem Ijaz cleared by FIA in BB case

 

[sparklingway]

Anyway, a noobie question. Does Pakistan have central VVIP security forces like India's Special Protection Group or US's Secret Service?

No. They take in people from the special forces of the police, send them to the IB school for some intelligence training (read sharpening dull minds) and then put them on VVIP security. The military lends a bunch of SSG soldiers as well. It's really a mix bunch. Besides, there are IB's dedicated officials to supervise the entire security and ICT Police has a DIG (Security) who oversees diplomatic and dignitaries protection.

It's been a constant recommendation but never gets approved for everybody fears that besides becoming an economic burden, it might grow out to become the FSF again.

The SPG guys looks cool though.

 

[fatman17]

^the JIT reports to the Interior min / FIA and they report to our 'compulsive liar" minister of interior - enough said abt the credibility of this report.

 

[sparklingway]

^the JIT reports to the Interior min / FIA and they report to our 'compulsive liar" minister of interior - enough said abt the credibility of this report.

The same conclusion was reached by the Punjab Police CID earlier. If they claim a DNA match, who are you ,me, or anybody with no evidence or knowledge to question until we have proof to question their conclusion.

Pointing fingers under Cui bono is pathetic. Let them proceeed and if their are discrepancies, we'll know. At least we are in the know of the investigations.

It isn't another Ojhri, Bahalwapur Crash, Plane Conspiracy Case or Kargil.

 

[Meengla]

The same conclusion was reached by the Punjab Police CID earlier. If they claim a DNA match, who are you ,me, or anybody with no evidence or knowledge to question until we have proof to question their conclusion.

Pointing fingers under Cui bono is pathetic. Let them proceeed and if their are discrepancies, we'll know. At least we are in the know of the investigations.

It isn't another Ojhri, Bahalwapur Crash, Plane Conspiracy Case or Kargil.

Correct.
Actually, some people are so HELLBENT to frame Zardari and his 'cronies' (the same 'cronies' also surrounded BB almost till her last breath!) that they want to have whatever findings twisted to fit their own desire: Frame Zardari come what way!

I don't know who killed Benazir -ultimately-; the suicide bombers were the obvious proxies but, in Pakistan, they can be 'hired' or brainwashed enough to do anybody's work. But I am almost certain that it was not Zardari! I don't think if our genius conspiracy blogspace is 'aware' of Zardari's role in the assassination then certainly Sanam Bhutto and Benazir's children would know that too.

My personal -hunch- is that she was killed by the religious-terrorists with at least the connivance of some powerful forces in Pakistan's security establishment who worked independent of Musharraf (Musharraf lost it all after BB was killed) and who thought that the 'only good Bhutto is a dead Bhutto' magic words. And I also think that the Americans were not too perturbed by her assassination because she DID deviate from the script after landing in Pakistan in Oct. 2007. One of the most clear indication for that came when Negroponte came to Pakistan and ignored meeting her. There were quite possibly other indication of her dumping by the West within past couple of weeks of her assassination.

Sadly, we may never know the full story.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

^^
yeh Zaradri was much more Obediant, its so ideal to have such a weak and bashed out person on that seat,
What a load of BS crap

 

[sparklingway]

Benazir Bhutto murder case​

Sunday, July 18, 2010
By Abdul Sattar Khan

LAHORE: The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by the Interior Ministry to probe the Benazir Bhutto murder case, has made significant progress but has so far not touched the brains behind the murder though a supplementary charge sheet (challan) has been prepared to be submitted before the court with the claim that it had arrested all the accused involved in the murder on the basis of what it calls “irrefutable evidence.”

The JIT has also requested for more time from the court to complete the investigations to identify those responsible for “washing of crime scene in haste, negligent and inadequate security measures and failure to conduct post-mortem of Late Benazir Bhutto which is still being conducted by the JIT”.

Despite the fact that the team is conducting investigations since August 6, 2009, when the Interior Ministry transferred the investigations from the Punjab police to FIA, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of FIA could not even trace the clue to unearth those faces, both individuals or institutions, whose connivance, in one way or the other, might have facilitated the murderers to carry out their heinous crime with perfection.

Though the JIT has requested the court to allow them more time to trace the individuals or institutions responsible for security and other lapses, yet it claimed examining “a number of persons through recording their statements and issuance of questionnaires in order to identify other accused, if any, involved in the criminal conspiracy for assassination of late Benazir Bhutto”.

In this regard, the JIT claimed of investigating role of relevant police officers for failure to provide proper security arrangements for Ms Bhutto, negligent washing of crime scene and failure to conduct post-mortem , which “either contributed directly to her assassination or subsequently impeded investigations due to insufficient crime scene evidence”.

Likewise, JIT claims of making every effort to determine whether the accused persons (murderers) received any support or facilitation or instigation from any government and public functionary, or whether any police officer deployed on duty in Liaqat , Rawalpindi, on the day of occurrence had any role by omission or commission in facilitation of the assassination.

Although JIT members have found Rawalpindi police officers responsible for the security breach, including absence of police escort officer at the time of her departure from Liaqat Bagh and a series of lapses, including destruction of crime scene resulting in loss of vital evidence, failure to conduct the post-mortem on the day of occurrence; however, the JIT has yet to fix the responsibility due to conflicting statements of concerned police officers.

Similarly, without making any significance progress, the JIT is still continuing to examine the failure of the then federal government and the then Government of Punjab to provide her appropriate level of security during the election campaign and their failure to take action against delinquent officers for negligence in official duty.

Contrary to the UN Commission report on Benazir Bhutto murder case, in which, the commission raised many questions making the role of many powerful organs and intelligence agencies dubious, the JIT report is emphasizing more and making claims of arresting those murderers who had actually carried out the murder, but it still needs more time to unearth the grand conspiracy which may expose the “mastermind, handlers or the facilitators” of the case.

The maximum the JIT has achieved till to-date is the re-confirmation of the earlier claim that the real master mind or the handler of the murder was Commander TTP Batiullah Mehsood after going through various forms of forensic analysis of various cell phones recovered from various arrested persons and the PTCL numbers installed in tribal areas (Tank and Bannu/Miranshah).

Similarly, another area where the JIT is still looking for success is the arrest of the identified accused persons, seven in number, including Baitullah Mehsood, who have been declared proclaimed offenders. However, two of them have been located in various places. In this context, one accused Abad ur Rehman alias Farooq was last located near Bara and Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency.

Abad ur Rehman, as per the investigations carried out by the JIT, is currently busy conducting terrorist attacks in Peshawar for TTP and Al-Qaeda. Similarly, another proclaimed offender Abdullah alias Saddam has been located in Mohmand Agency. The best the JIT could do for their arrest is approaching and holding meeting with officials concerned in Frontier Corps HQ Bala Hisar, Corps Headquarters Peshawar and ACS Fata Peshawar.

It is worth mentioning that until now this high profile case has been investigated by the two JITs as the first was constituted soon after the murder and consisting of officials of the Punjab police while later on in the first week of August 2009, the investigations was transferred to another JIT which consists of FIA officials.

The first JIT, which submitted the first challan in the court, included Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, DIG (CID) Punjab; Waqar Ahmed Chauhan, SP/Traffic Lahore, Punjab; Tahir Ayub, SP Investigations, Rawalpindi; Inspector Tariq Ilyas and SI Ashfaq Ahmed of CID, Lahore, under the supervision of Abdul Majeed, Addl Inspector General of Police CID, Punjab, while the second JIT is headed by Khalid Qureshi, Director Special Investigation Group (SIG) FIA, while Azad Khan, Additional Director FIA; Shoaib Ahmed, Assistant Director FIA; Wajid Zia, Director, FIA; Sohail Habib , Additional Director (SIG) FIA; and Ghulam Asghar Jatoi, Assistant Director, FIA, Karachi, are the members of JIT.

Though the JIT either could not find substantial evidence to trace the “real face behind the scene” or is reluctant to pursue this vital aspect of the case due to multiple expediencies, yet it seems that the entire investigation revolved around those who actually carried out the operation.

Elaborating the tasks undertaken by JIT till the time of filling the supplementary challan, the investigations primarily relied on confessional statements of the arrested accused and statements of officials, statement of author of intercepted CD recorded, statement of concerned offices of mobile phone companies, call record of all linked phone numbers of suspects, proper analysis of suspects phone numbers, Forensic report of cell phones, RBS locations of accused, two diaries containing telephone numbers recovered from arrested persons, DNA reports by Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) and comparison report by FBI DNA Laboratory.

During the earlier investigation, it was reported that some of the accused had studied and resided in Madrassah Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, before and during the day of occurrence of Liaqat Bagh. For this purpose, the JIT approached the administration of Darul Uloom Haqqania and got the relevant record which helped them to identify four students, namely Abdullah alias Saddam, Nadir alias Qari Ismail, Rasheed Ahmed alias Abdur Rahim Turabi and Faiz Mohammad.

During the course of this portion of investigations, the Nazim-e-Talimaat Darool Uloom Haqqania, Wasal Ahmed, even disclosed the names of few other students who were arrested by police in Kamra Missile Attack case in 2008, for their alleged connection with TTP. On the basis of this new disclosure, the JIT has now started examining the role of Darul Ulooma Haqqania Management allegedly for harbouring terrorists involved in this case.

The JIT also claimed identifying the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up on December 27, 2007, by receiving comparison DNA report prepared by the FBI on March 26, 2010.

As per the claim of JIT, one of the accused Hasnain Gul made a confessional statement that two suicide bombers namely Bilal and Ikramullah stayed at residence of Hasnain’s arrested co-accused Mohammad Rafaqat on December 26, 2007.

On December 27, 2007, Hasnain Gul got the two suicide bombers prepared at his residence for launching the suicide attack. These bombers left one shawl, a pair of joggers and a cap at the residence of accused Hasnain Gul. JIT sent these items to FBI DNA Laboratory Quantico, USA, through acting US Legal Attache Office Carol M Sniegowski, US Embassy in Islamabad, on September 19, 2009.

On March 26, 2010, the US Embassy provided the final DNA result of the Laboratory’s forensic DNA examination which verified that the DNA profiles of two individuals prepared by AFIP, Rawalpindi, from various body parts (including piece of soft tissue adjacent to teeth, reconstructed face, Intact right hand without index finger, thumb, soft issue from tongue, piece of soft tissue, right leg with black socks and brown leather chappal, left leg with black socks and brown leather chappal, left leg with woolen socks and red shoes, right leg with woolen socks and red shoes) of the suiciders has been found present on Shawl and pair of joggers recovered from the house of accused Hasnain Gul.

Further strengthening their contention of producing the real accused in the court, the JIT claimed that forensic examination of three cell phones (35640512608494-359554016785688 and 35195501382647449) recovered from Hasnain Gul and Mohammad Rafaqat were conducted in SIG Forensic Laboratory. The IMEI analysis of the SIMs of these cell phones revealed that the cell phone recovered from one arrested accused Rafaqat at the time of arrest was in use of Hasnain Gul on the day of occurrence. Similarly, the call records analysis and RBS locations of six cell phones (03049684538, 03325609682, 0331-5013836, 0344-6654236, 0344-9666465 and 0346-9442498 and two PTCL numbers (0928-230493, 0965-238387) has revealed that accused persons namely Nasrullah, Hasnain Gul, Mohammad Rafaqat, Qari Ismail, Abadur Rehman and two PTCL numbers remained interconnected between December 2, 2007 to December 27, 2007, when these accused were involved in planning, facilitating and execution of suicide bombing attack against Ms Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi and subsequent escape from Rawalpindi to Dir.

During the course of these forms of forensic analysis of the recovered cell phones and identified PTCL numbers, which shows these phones remained interconnected during the period of planning, and finally its execution on December 27, 2007, also brought to surface once again the name of the dead Baitullah Mehsood as the only master mind or the handler of the case.

In this regard, the statement of special operator of ISI, Mohammad Ismail, assumed paramount importance as in his statement recorded by the JIT, Mohammad Ismail claimed that he is attached with the ISI for the last five years, and he is well versed with Pushto language. His duties include hearing and recording telephonic conversation of commanders of different organizations.

On December 28, 2007, just one day after the occurrence of the bombing, during interception of routinely under observation telephone numbers, the ISI intercepted a telephone call from a phone number 0928-230493 (registered in the name of Mazharuddin) to a phone number 0965-238387 (registered in the name of Haji Shah Wali Khan). Through experience, Ismail identified the caller from the phone number 0928-230493 as Baitullah Mehsood. He recorded the conversation on the CD whose duration was just one minute and 13 seconds.

However, during the course of this lengthy procedure of forensic analysis of these cell numbers, the JIT has discovered that user of one suspicious but currently active cell number (0345-3818989) has now switched to a new cell phone number (0305-2761582) which is presently active in Karachi.

The supplementary challan carrying the list of arrested persons (five in numbers, including Aitzaz Shah alias Saifullah, Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul alias Ali, Mohammad Rafaqat, Rashid Ahmed alias Abdul Rahim), seven accused who are not challaned or declared POs including Baitullah Mehsood, Ibar ur Rehman alias Noman, Abdullah alias Sadam, Faiz Mohammad alias Kiskat, Ikramullah, Nasrullah alias Ahmed, Nadir alias Qari Ismail while the list of prosecution witnesses, carrying the names of 115 officials, individuals, injured and eye witnesses.

Despite the best efforts of this scribe, The News could not obtain even few words from interior minister Rehman Malik and the head of the JIT Khalid Qureshi.