Musharraf formally arrested over murder of Benazir Bhutto

Islamabad/Lahore, Apr 26: Pervez Musharraf was today formally arrested by Pakistani investigators over the murder of Benazir Bhutto after an anti-terrorism court directed them to include the former President in the probe into the 2007 assassination.

A team of officials from the Federal Investigation Agency formally arrested Musharraf at his palatial farmhouse on the outskirts of Islamabad, which was declared a "sub-jail" after he was remanded to judicial custody last week.

FIA officials said Musharraf will remain at his farmhouse but will be produced in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi tomorrow. The FIA team also recorded Musharraf's statement tonight. The FIA officials asked Musharraf why former premier Benazir Bhutto was not provided adequate security by his regime when she returned to Pakistan from self-exile in 2007, Geo News channel reported.

Musharraf reportedly said Bhutto was provided complete security and refused to accept allegations made against him. The formal arrest was made hours after Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman of the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court accepted a request from prosecutors to question Musharraf and to include him in the investigation into the 2007 assassination.

Special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali of the Federal Investigation Agency told PTI a joint investigation team would question Musharraf on two issues – making a threatening phone call to Bhutto and sending an email that warned her not to return to Pakistan, and failing to provide adequate security to Bhutto after she came back to the country.

Musharraf's failure to provide adequate security to Bhutto "indirectly facilitated and helped terrorists in executing their plan to murder" her, Ali said. Musharraf will also be quizzed on why he did not respond to five letters from Bhutto seeking foolproof security ahead of her return to Pakistan. "Musharraf provided foolproof security to other leaders like (then) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz but ignored Benazir," he said.

PTI