Zardari rejects claim of al-Qaida link to Bhutto's murder

Pakistani officials trying to muddy the water, Guardian told

Declan Walsh in Naudero
Tuesday January 1, 2008
The Guardian


Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, offers mourning prayers at the Bhutto residence in Naudero. Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP

Benazir Bhutto's husband, Asif Zardari, dismissed government claims of al-Qaida involvement in his wife's assassination, accusing officials of a cover-up and comparing it to the death of John F Kennedy. "I think soon the chickens are going to lay their eggs and we will blame them on al-Qaida," he told the Guardian at the family home in Naudero. "Al-Qaida has nothing to fear; why would they fear us? Are they our political opponents?" he said.

New evidence raised fresh doubts about the government's version of Bhutto's death. Fresh video footage appeared to show that she died last Thursday from an assassin's bullet and not, as the interior ministry said, from a blow to the head in the force of a bomb explosion.

"They want to muddy the waters," said Zardari, sitting in a room filled with portraits of his wife. "[Even] Kennedy's murder is not solved. What do they do? They always find 10 excuses and 10 people to blame, and one to hang."

Continued . . .