Musharraf to be blamed if I lost life: Bhutto's mail
Washington,
Dec
28:
Two
months
before
her
death,
former
Pakistani
Prime
Minister
Benazir
Bhutto
had
sent
an
e-mail
to
her
US
adviser
Mark
Seigal,
saying
if
she
were
killed,
Pakistani
President
Pervez
Musharraf
would
bear
the
blame
for
failing
to
protect
her
life.
''If harmed in Pakistan, I would hold President Musharraf responsible,'' Bhutto wrote in the chilling email penned a week after a suicide bomber targeted her on her return to Pakistan from exile in Karachi on October 18. The charismatic leader had asked for the email to be forwarded to the media if she was killed. The email was revealed on air by CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer, yesterday who received it from Mr Siegel.
''I have been made to feel insecure by his minions,'' 'the daughter of East' wrote of President Musharraf, detailing security measures which were not granted her after her return to Pakistan.
''There is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides could happen without him.'' After the October bombing, she accused elements in the government and security services of trying to kill her and asked President Musharraf for ''basic security''.
Mr Siegal said Bhutto was very concerned as she was not getting the security that she had asked for.
''She basically asked for all that was required for someone of the standing of a former prime minister. All of that was denied to her,'' he claimed, adding, ''She got some police protection, but it was sporadic and erratic.'' The news channel revealed the email hours after the PPP chairperson was killed in a suicide attack yesterday at an election rally in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, rebuffed the charges, saying, ''The government of Pakistan provided all the security that was necessary. There was a bubble around her of security.'' ''It's just a blame game, and the problem is the real terrorists that have been after her,'' he said.
Bhutto death comes less than two weeks before Pakistan's January 8 scheduled parliamentary elections.
UNI