By Mushtaq Yusufzai and Javed Afridi PESHAWAR, Pakistan, 30 December 2007 (The News) -Commander Baitullah Mehsud, accused of masterminding the attack that killed former PrimeMinister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, has rejected the allegations as baseless.
"We are equally grieved by the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto andextend our sympathies to her family and party workers in this hour ofgrief," said Mr. Omar, a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud and hisTehreek-e-Pakistan [Pakistan Movement], a conglomerate of all the [Pashtun] organisations operating in tribal areas as well as thesettled districts of the NWFP.
Baitullah Mehsud, Ameer or central leader of the recently-formedTehreek-e-Pakistan, was accused by the Interior Ministry SpokesmanBrig. (retd.) Javed Iqbal Cheema of sending the bomber near thevehicle of Benazir Bhutto outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. Mr. Omar, who made a call to The News from an undisclosed location, onSaturday said Baitullah Mehsud, while sensing the gravity of theallegations levelled against him, convened an emergency meeting ofTehreek-e-Pakistan [Council] comprising senior commanders at a secretplace somewhere between South and North Waziristan tribal region toclarify his position.
"Why on earth would we kill her [Benazir Bhutto]? We had no enmity with her and more importantly she had done no wrong to us," Mr. Omarsaid while quoting Baitullah Mehsud as telling the [Council] meeting. He said that it was against the teachings of Islam and Shariah, aswell as the centuries old rich traditions of the tribal people, not toharm a woman and added that the [illegal Pervez Musharraf] government allegations against the commander were part of face-saving moves ithad resorted to ever since the incident took place.
"By blaming us for the murder of an important political leader likeBenazir Bhutto, the government is in fact misguiding the world.Planning such actions is simply beyond our imagination," he claimed. "We want to assure the Pakistan People's Party [PPP] leaders and itsworkers that we can't even think of killing their leader. We are withthem in this hour of grief and sorrow," claimed the spokesman.
He alleged that the [unlawful Musharraf] government was attempting toportray the tribal areas as centers of "terrorists" so as to earndollars from, what he termed as, Western masters. "This is why theykeep the tribal belt in continuous grip of violence." Accusing the [Pakistan Army's] secret agencies for the crime, he saidthe modus operandi and precision of the strike revealed that thegruesome act was committed by professional hands.
It may be recalled here that Baitullah Mehsud was also [maliciouslyand illegally] accused of threatening Benazir Bhutto with "suicideattacks" - [by the Musharraf government-controlled Daily Times of Najam Sethi and Salman Taseer(Publisher and Minister for Industries, Production and SpecialInitiatives in the unlawful Caretaker Cabinet of Tyrant Musharraf and Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro)] upon her arrival in[Karachi] Pakistan [on 18 October 2007] - that he later denied.
The commander at that time said he had never thought of such an attackas he knew that it would kill innocent people. Mr. Omar said they had time and again disowned the statementattributed to Baitullah Mehsud regarding the "suicide attacks" on Benazir Bhutto upon her return from abroad, but lamented that certainpeople conveniently ignored the same to promote their interests.
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