Benazir assassination case takes new turn as officials hunt for four ex-army men - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Investigations into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have taken a new turn as Interior Ministry officials have revealed that they are looking for four retired military personnel who had eloped just before the December 2007 killing. According to The Dawn, the officials are searching four out of the eight ex-army officials associated with the main accused in the case Ibad ur Rehman. The four other soldiers are still serving in the army. This is the first time that the investigators are probing into the possibility of army soldiers' involvement in Bhutto's assassination. It is pertinent to mention here that the UN commission probing the murder is likely to submit its final report to the Pakistan government on March 31. The commission's findings would be submitted to the US Secretary General Ban ki Moon, and would also be shared with the Pakistan government, a UN spokesperson said. The inquiry commission was to submit its report by 31st December 2009 , but it had sought an extension in its term, as its work was severely affected by the poor law and order situation in Pakistan. The commission headed by Chilean Ambassador to UN Heraldo Munoz met several high profile persons in Pakistan, including the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt.Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. The commission had also grilled former President General Pervez Musharraf, who is currently in London. Pakistan had called for a UN commission to probe the assassination of the two-time Prime Minister who was killed at a campaign rally at Rawalpindi on December 27 2007, after her supporters were angered by conflicting accounts from the then-government of how she died. The international commission is primarily a fact-finding team in nature and its mandate is only to determine the facts and circumstances of the assassination. The duty of determining criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of the assassination remains with the Pakistani authorities.