The Pakistani Taliban have for the first time claimed responsibility for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a book written by a<\/p>\n
senior leader of the banned militant group.<\/p>\n
After Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, members of military ruler Pervez Musharraf\u2019s regime had blamed the Tehreek-<\/p>\n
e-Taliban Pakistan for the assassination. However, the group and its leaders had never spoken about the incident so far.<\/p>\n
The Urdu language book Inqilab Mehsood South Waziristan – From British Raj to American Imperialism, written by Taliban leader Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor<\/p>\n
Wali and published on November 30, 2017 at Maseed Computer Center at Barmal in Afghanistan\u2019s Paktika province, makes the claim that suicide bombers<\/p>\n
Bilal, also known as Saeed, and Ikramullah were tasked to carry out the attack on Bhutto.<\/p>\n
\u201cBomber Bilal first fired at Benazir Bhutto from his pistol and the bullet hit her neck. Then he detonated his explosive jacket and blew himself up among the<\/p>\n
participants of the procession,\u201d the book says, according to The Daily Times newspaper.<\/p>\n
Soon after Bhutto was killed, the Musharraf regime had released a recording of a conversation between the two Taliban members discussing the assassination.<\/p>\n
The 588-page book, which contains numerous photographs of Taliban leaders, was posted online on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The book says Ikramullah, a resident of Makeen town in South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, had escaped from the scene of the attack and is<\/p>\n
still alive. The book does not say if this is the same Ikramullah who was declared a fugitive along with five others by the anti-terrorism court hearing the<\/p>\n
assassination case.<\/p>\n
The book further says the Taliban were also involved in an attack by two suicide bombers on an earlier procession by Bhutto in Karachi in October 2007, which<\/p>\n
killed nearly 140 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite attacks on Benazir Bhutto\u2019s procession in Karachi, the government had not taken appropriate security measures that made it possible for the attackers<\/p>\n
to have easy access to Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n
After a prolonged trial, the anti-terrorism court acquitted five Taliban suspects last year and gave 17-year prison terms to two police officers for dereliction of<\/p>\n
duty. It also declared Musharraf a fugitive. Musharraf has repeatedly denied any involvement in the matter and dismissed the charges against him as politically<\/p>\n
motivated.<\/p>\n
Baitullah Mehsud, who headed the Taliban at the time of the assassination, was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in 2009.<\/p>\n
The book notes that investigators had blamed the Taliban for Bhutto\u2019s killing but Mehsud had initially denied involvement. It says the Taliban leaders from the<\/p>\n
Mehsud clan had denied any involvement until December 27, 2017, Bhutto\u2019s 10th death anniversary, but gives no reason why they had changed their stance.<\/p>\n
The book also reveals that Baitullah Mehsud had approved the attack on Bhutto\u2019s procession in Karachi in October, 2007, when she returned to Pakistan from<\/p>\n
self-exile to campaign for the 2008 elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe return of Benazir Bhutto was planned at the behest of the Americans as they had given her a plan against the Mujahideed-e-Islam. Baitullah had received<\/p>\n
information of the plan,\u201d the book claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when Benazir Bhutto arrived in Karachi, two suicide bombers Mohsin Mehsud and Rehmatullah Mehsud carried out attacks on her procession at Karsaz area<\/p>\n
of Karachi,\u201d the book says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pakistani Taliban have for the first time claimed responsibility for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a book written by a senior leader of the banned militant group. After Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, members of military ruler Pervez Musharraf\u2019s regime had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18696,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694\/revisions\/18696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}