Suspects remanded to police custody in Bhutto' assassination

Islamabad, Jan 24 (UNI) An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan has remanded Aitzaz Shah and Sher Zaman, the accused in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case, to ten-day police custody.

ATC Judge Sakhi Muhammad Kahot remanded the two accused following the request of Superintendent Police Waqar Ahmed Chohan.

The investigators pleaded for remand to extract further information regarding Benazir's murder, accomplices of the killers and explosives used.

They also contended that the remand was needed to further probe into the alleged role of the two suspects in the bomb and gun attack on Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

The two are charged with murder, attempt to murder, terrorism, possessing and using banned explosive materials to cause damage to public property and hatching criminal conspiracy.

They were arrested from Dera Ismail Khan in the second week of this month. Police claimed that Aitzaz, during preliminary investigations, revealed that he knew people who had planned and executed the attack on Benazir Bhutto outside Liaqat Bagh in Rawalpindi.

More than 22 people were killed in the attack.

According to police, Aitzaz confessed that he would have launched a second attack on the slain PPP leader, had the first failed.

The accused were brought to the court amid tight security. The area around the court was cordoned off and no mediaperson was allowed.

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