UN commission probing BB assassination case seeks 3-month extension

Islamabad, Nov.26 (ANI): The United Nations inquiry commission probing the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sought a three-month extension from the Pakistan government.

According to sources, Chile's Ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, who is the chairman of the inquiry committee, has sought more time to submit the report, saying the delay is being caused due to the adverse security scenario in Pakistan.

"We're working hard and advancing, but there is a great deal of work to be done," The Daily Times quoted Munoz, as saying.

Insiders believed that once the extension is granted, the commission would then ask UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to extend its mandate.

The government had called for a UN inquiry after Bhutto's supporters were angered by conflicting accounts of how she died and who was responsible.

They cast doubt on a Pakistani probe into her death, criticised authorities for hosing down the scene of the attack within minutes - allegedly destroying evidence - and questioning whether she was killed by a gunshot or the blast.

Munoz has already made it clear that the commission's report should not be expected to be a 'smoking gun', as it would not mention any names of perpetrators of the assassination, since its mandate was just to examine the facts and circumstances in which the killing was carried out.

"Our report would not be a smoking gun. We would not tell the names of perpetrators," he had said earlier. (ANI)