BB murder case: Arrest warrants of SP, CPO issued

Hearing the case at Adiala Jail, the court summoned Shahzad and Aziz and issued their non-bailable arrest warrants.

ISLAMABAD: The Anti Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi on Saturday issued warrants for the arrest of two police officers for their "failure" to protect former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a prosecutor said.

The court had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Rawalpindi's City Police Officer (CPO) at the time, Saud Aziz, and Superintendent of Police (SP) Khurram Shahzad, special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said.

"I filed an application that the two police officers be summoned as accused in the case for their abetment in the crime and the court has accepted my request today," Ali told AFP.

"The officers failed to provide adequate security to Bhutto, denied her a post-mortem and were also responsible for hosing down the scene of the killing immediately after the crime," the prosecutor said.

The court will resume the hearing on December 11, he said.

Police said they had arrested five men in the weeks following Bhutto's slaying and five other suspects were at large, of whom three had been killed, including Taliban and al Qaeda commander Baitullah Mehsud.

A three-member UN panel tasked with investigating Bhutto's assassination reported in April that it believed the government of then military ruler Pervez Musharraf had failed to provide Bhutto with adequate protection.

The panel said its investigation had been hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials who had impeded "an unfettered search for the truth.”