Former Pakistan prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a gun and bombing attack in Rawalpindi on 27 December, 2007.
Soon after the assassination, the case was registered and the trial went through many ups and down until concluded on Wednesday in Rawalpindi. ATC Judge, Asghar Ali Khan, who heard the case in city’s Adiala Jail had reserved the judgment after conducting day-to-day hearing going on since Monday.
Pervez Musharraf, who was the president when Bhutto was killed, has been declared an absconder. His trial will be held separately on his return to Pakistan. The other five suspects- Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid were arrested soon after the assassination and have been in jail. Then Rawalpindi police chief, Saud Aziz and SSP Kurrum Shehzad are also among the accused.
They were initially arrested but released on bail in 2011. The main trail five suspects started in January 2008, while Musharraf, Aziz and Shahezad were implicated in 2009 after fresh probe by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Eight different judges heard the case during this period.
Earlier, TTP chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was accused of the murder and Musharraf’s government issued a taped conversation of Mehsud with a certain operator in which he was congratulating the operator for the murder. But FIA Chief Prosecutor, Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry, termed evidence of audio record as a made-up story by Musharraf to mislead the investigators and to save himself. In his concluding arguments, Chaudhry disowned the evidence and transcript of the telephonic conversation.
