Pakistan condemns media reports over Bhutto killing

{image-benazibenazir last pic in rally13_01012008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Islamabad, Jan 1: Pakistan has condemned a US media report, alleging Pakistani troops were involved in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The Foreign Office rejected the report appearing in Newsday as ''ridiculous, absurd and sinister insinuations'' which quoted US Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton as saying, ''The garrison town (Rawalpindi) is now being remembered as a city where prime ministers are killed.'' ''We take strong exception to the report, which has twisted certain remarks by Senator Hillary Clinton to suggest that Pakistan troops might have killed Bhutto as carried by Newsday of December 30, 2007,'' a Foreign Office statement said.

''We reject such ridiculous, absurd and sinister insinuations that reek of animus against Pakistan and an intent to see Pakistan destabilized,'' the statement added.

The Pakistan government was making every effort to ''comprehensively investigate'' the dastardy assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, it said.

''We owe this to the people of Pakistan and to the family of the former Prime Minister. The Government is committed to a thorough and transparent investigation and will not shy away from receiving assistance from outside, if needed. No effort will be spared to establish the facts,'' the statement said.

''We also expect that responsible leaders and public figures in the US would refrain from making statements that are likely to be distorted and misused and could further upset the people who are still in a state of shock because of the national tragedy,'' the statement added.

UNI