Bhutto assassination probe in chaos as investigator shot dead

The killing in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday comes at a sensitive time as Pakistan prepares for national elections on May 11 amid a spate of Taliban attacks on candidates.

In the southern city of Karachi, gunmen on motorcycles killed an anti-Taliban election candidate and his six-year-old son.

Government prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali was at the helm of a number of controversial cases, including the 2007 Bhutto assassination in which Mr Musharraf is accused of involvement.

The prosecutor was recently reported to have received death threats. He was headed to a hearing related to Musharraf and the Bhutto case when he was killed at court in Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.

The prosecutor was shot at least 13 times, with wounds to his head and chest. His car was pockmarked with bullets and the windshield shattered.

Mr Ali lost control of his car, which hit a woman passer-by and killed her, said police.

His guard had returned fire and is believed to have wounded at least one of the attackers who fled in a taxi and on a motorcycle. The guard also was injured.

It’s rare for such an attack to happen in the capital, which is home to high-ranking government and military officials, diplomats and international aid workers.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who was married to Bhutto, strongly condemned the prosecutor’s murder and called for a thorough investigation.

A motive for the killing was unclear and no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion is likely to fall on Islamic militants.

Government prosecutors have accused Mr Musharraf of being involved in the Bhutto assassination and not providing enough security to Pakistan’s first female prime minister. Mr Musharraf, who was in power when Bhutto was killed, has denied the allegations. At the time of the attack, he blamed the assassination on the Pakistani Taliban.

The Bhutto case has lingered for years in the Pakistani court system. A number of alleged assailants are on trial but no one has been convicted.

The case burst into the headlines when Mr Musharraf returned in March after four years in exile, expecting to make a political comeback. But his fortunes have gone from bad to worse since he arrived.

Judges barred him from running in the May 11 parliamentary election not long after he arrived because of his record in power. A court in the north-western city of Peshawar went further this week and banned Mr Musharraf from running for public office for life.

He is under house arrest on the outskirts of Islamabad in connection with several cases against him, including the Bhutto case. He also faces allegations of treason.

Mr Ali was also the government’s lead prosecutor in a case related to the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai that is widely believed to have been carried by the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Pakistan has put seven men on trial on charges they assisted in the Mumbai siege, but the trial has made little progress. India has criticized Pakistan for not doing more to crack down on the militants blamed for the attack.

Hafiz Saeed, the head of a group believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, remains free, and many believe he enjoys the protection of the government. Lashkar-e-Taiba was founded years ago with the help of Pakistani intelligence to put pressure on India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.