Startling disclosure in Benazir Bhutto case

A Pakistani bomb expert has told an anti-terrorism court that the venue of a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally in Rawalpindi, where Benazir Bhutto was killed, had not been cleared by the bomb disposal squad.

Bhutto was killed in a bombing in December 2007 as she left a PPP rally in Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, just ahead of the scheduled general election of 2008 in which she was a leading opposition candidate.

According to Geo News, Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman, an anti-terrorism court judge, heard statements of two witnesses, forensic expert Dr. Amjad and bomb squad expert Saqlain, in Rawalpindi.

Amjad had carried out the post-mortem after the bombing, and had also treated the injured.

Saqlain told the court that Liaquat Bagh had not been cleared by the bomb squad ahead of the PPP meeting.

A UN report in 2010 accused the Pervez Musharraf-led government of failing to protect Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan from exile to run for prime minister.

Musharraf, who has been living in London and Dubai since resigning in 2008, has denied the allegations.

Bhutto's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, now the PPP chairman, has alleged that Musharraf was aware of the threats when Al Qaeda had instructed the Taliban to kill his mother, but that his government did not provide her adequate security.