The Pakistani government has directly implicated the commander of the newly created Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema claimed the government intercepted a phone conversation between none other than Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and Maulvi Sahib, one of Mehsud’s underlings. The Telegraph has the transcript of the alleged recording. Baitullah congratulates Sahib, who explains the attack was carried out by three of their own operatives.
Yesterday, Mustafa Abu al Yazid, al Qaeda’s commander in Afghanistan, boasted to a Pakistani journalist that al Qaeda was behind the attack. “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Yazid said in a phone call to Syed Saleem Shahzad. The Pakistan government’s claim that Baitullah Mehsud is behind the attack and al Qaeda’s claim of credit for the strike are not mutually exclusive. The Bhutto assassination also was very likely carried out with support from inside the police, military, and intelligence agencies.
