Bhutto's murder could have been prevented: UN

Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide attack on 27 December, 2007 during an election rally in Rawalpindi.

The UN-backed independent three-member commission, headed by Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, released its findings about the assassination in New York on Thursday.

The commission said that responsibility for Bhutto's security on the day of her killing had rested with "the federal government, the government of Punjab and the Rawalpindi district police."

"None of these entities took the necessary measures to respond to the extraordinary, fresh, urgent security risks that they knew she face," it stated.

The government, which was led by allies of the then President Pervez Musharraf, accused Baitullah Mehsud, who at the time was the head of the Pakistani Taliban and has since been killed, of being behind Bhutto's murder.

Deliberate improper investigation

The 65-page report accuses the government of deliberately failing to properly investigate Bhutto's death.

The UN panel has also criticized Pakistan's intelligence agencies for their non-cooperative behaviour in the subsequent criminal investigation.

The report states that although a 15-year-old suicide bomber was identified as having killed the former prime minister, the authorities failed to make any serious efforts to track down the mastermind behind the assassination.

Credible criminal inquiry

The report calls on the Pakistani authorities to conduct a credible investigation into Bhutto's killing to "bring those responsible to justice." It also urges the authorities to carry out reforms in the Pakistani police force, as well as in its intelligence agencies.

Former President Musharraf's supporters have rejected the report's findings. The UN report is "preposterous, ridiculous and a lie," retired Major-General Rashid Qureshi said.

However, the office of President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, expressed satisfaction with the findings. "We are not oblivious of our responsibilities to carry out investigations," Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for President Zardari told Reuters news agency.

Zardari called for the UN investigation after he became president and replaced Musharraf in 2008. The panel started its work in 2009, conducting more than 250 interviews with Pakistani officials that included Zardari and Musharraf.

It also met members of Britain's Scotland Yard that had also conducted a probe into Bhutto's assassination.

du/dpa/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Anne Thomas