Aitezaz Shah, the 15-year-old who was arrested last week on suspicion of being involved in former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination has told investigators that his next target was the US consulate in Karachi. He has trained as a suicide bomber, told officials that he had been asked to attack Bhutto in Karachi in case she escaped the bid on her life in Rawalpindi. He had earlier said that a member of the squad, Bilal, killed Bhutto by shooting her and detonating his explosive vest as she was leaving an election rally on December 27.
Shah told the interrogators on Monday that he had received terrorist training with two terror suspects, Bilal and Ikram, whose names were mentioned in a telephonic conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and another militant that was intercepted by security agencies a day after Bhutto’s assassination.
Scotland Yard sleuths helping Pakistan in the probe into Bhutto’s assassination may also quiz Shah and his accomplice, Sher Zaman, both of whom were arrested in Dera Ismail Khan of the North West Frontier Province.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said, “We will have no objection if the Scotland Yard team wishes to interrogate them.” The Scotland Yard sleuths have gone back to Britain to analyse the evidence they had gathered, but the British High Commission said they could return to Pakistan if necessary.
Meanwhile, Pakistan police have seized a suicide jacket, an electric detonator, four grenades and explosives after raiding Zaman’s residence.
Police and security officials who raided Zaman’s residence seized a jacket used in suicide attacks along with a switch and an electric detonator, four grenades and half-a-kilogramme of explosives.