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