NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Suspect suspect “confesses”

PPP pushes for independent Bhutto probe
By Farhan Bokhari, Financial Times, January 20, 2008

Pakistan’s main opposition party, the Pakistan People’s party, on Sunday dismissed the arrest of a teenager in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, and renewed calls for an international investigation into her killing last month.

The PPP’s response followed news on Saturday that Pakistani security forces had made the first arrest directly linked to the killing of Ms Bhutto on December 27.

The teenager was identified as Aitezaz Shah, 15. He was arrested last week in Dera Ismail Khan, a northwestern town close to the tribal areas that border Afghanistan. A second man in his 20s, named as Sher Zaman, was also arrested. He has been described as Mr Shah’s handler.

Mr Shah’s arrest comes amid growing disagreement between President Pervez Musharraf’s government and Ms Bhutto’s PPP over the circumstances surrounding her killing in Rawalpindi, the city outside Islamabad where Pakistan’s military headquarters are located. [complete article]

Editor’s Comment — How difficult is it to get a fifteen-year old to confess? Is this why General Hayden has “no reason to question” Musharraf’s story about who killed Benazir Bhutto?

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