ATC verdict in Benazir murder case: 5 TTP terrorist acquitted, Musharraf declared as proclaimed offender

Five alleged members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — who have been acquitted by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in the murder case of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. While two police officers were found guilty of "mishandling the crime scene", becoming the only people to be convicted in the case. Anti-terrorism court sentenced these two senior police officers to 17 years in prison in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, nine years, eight months and three days after the assassination.

The five men — Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid — were acquitted by the ATC citing lack of evidence against them. Pervez Musharraf declared a fugitive and his property ordered confiscated after he failed to show in court.

The convicted police officers are, Saud Aziz, who was chief of Rawalpindi police at the time, and senior officer Khurram Shahzad. Shahzad was accused of hosing down the crime scene less than two hours after the killing — an act the United Nations described in a report as “fundamentally inconsistent with Pakistani police practice”. Aziz was accused of both giving Shahzad permission to hose down the scene, and of refusing multiple times to allow an autopsy of Bhutto’s body to go ahead.

Former prime minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on Dec 27, 2007. The then government of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf had blamed TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud for the assassination of Ms Bhutto. But Mehsud — who was killed in a US drone attack in 2009 — denied his involvement in the murder.

In 2013, a Pakistani court formally charged Musharraf with Bhutto's killing in an unprecedented move against an ex-army chief. He was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder, and facilitation for murder Musharraf later fled Pakistan in 2016, drawing criticism from opponents after the government lifted a travel ban against him. He has remained in self-imposed exile ever since.

A three-member UN team of investigators was dispatched to investigate the killing. In its 70-page report released in 2010, the UN categorically held Musharraf's administration responsible for failing to provide Bhutto with the necessary security to ward off the attack. But the UN team hinted at something beyond police incompetence, saying the official investigation was likely stifled by the country's security establishment.

Speculation was further fuelled after Zardari's senior aide Bilal Sheikh was killed by a suicide bomber in Karachi in 2013. Sheikh had been in charge of Bhutto's security when she returned to Karachi from exile in October 2007 when bomb attacks targeted her convoy, killing around 140 people. Other unconfirmed speculation pointed towards Bhutto's trusted bodyguard Khalid Shahensha, with video clips showing him making strange gestures at the podium where Bhutto addressed the rally moments before her death. Months after the assassination, Shahensha was also gunned down mysteriously in Karachi.

The PPP claims that Musharraf himself was behind Bhutto’s murder. He has denied the allegations. He was acquitted last year in the 2006 killing of a Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, but four cases remain against him: one accusing him of treason for imposing emergency rule, one alleging the unlawful dismissal of judges, one over a deadly raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad in 2007, and Bhutto’s killing. Gen Musharraf’s political party All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) has also decided to challenge the verdict. Rejecting the verdict, the APML wondered how Gen Musharraf was declared an absconder in the case. Secretary General of APML Dr Mohammad Amjad said the verdict had protected real culprits by acquitting five main accused in the case despite their confession. “Those who were responsible for the assassination will benefit.”

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto took place on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996) and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for January 2008. Shots were fired at her after a political rally at Liaquat National Bagh, and a suicide bomb was detonated immediately following the shooting. She was declared dead at 18:16 local time (13:16 UTC), at Rawalpindi General Hospital. Twenty-four other people were killed by the bombing. Bhutto had previously survived a similar attempt on her life that killed at least 139 people, after her return from exile two months earlier.

Though early reports indicated that she had been hit by shrapnel or the gunshots, the Pakistani Interior Ministry initially stated that Bhutto died of a skull fracture sustained when the force of the explosion caused her head to strike the sunroof of the vehicle. Bhutto's aides rejected this version, and argued instead that she suffered two gunshots before the bomb detonation. The Interior Ministry subsequently backtracked from its previous claim.

In May 2007, Bhutto asked for additional protection from foreign contracting agencies Blackwater and the British firm Armor Group. The United Nations' investigation of the incident revealed that, "Ms. Bhutto's assassination could have been prevented if adequate security measures had been taken."