ISLAMABAD – Osama Bin Laden was supervising the plot to assassinatetwo-time Prime Minister and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and for this theformer Al Qaeda chief had shifted to Afghanistan, according to intelligencegathered by Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency, a media report said on her 10thdeath anniversary on Wednesday, Gulf News has reported.
According to a report in The News International, the explosives to executethe assassination were allegedly provided by the courier of Osama Bin Laden.
This information was provided to the Interior Ministry in December 2007 bythe Pakistan Army and the ISI in three reports as well as in lettersobtained from the former Al Qaeda chief’s residence.In the secret intelligence reports, the Interior Ministry was warned thatbin Laden had issued orders to kill then-President Pervez Musharraf,Pakistan People’s Party’s former chairperson Benazir Bhutto and JamiatUlema-E-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman.
Bhutto was killed along with 21 people in a gun-and-bomb attack outsideRawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh during an election campaign rally on December 27,2007.
According to the documents received by The NewsInternational correspondent, the most important letter by the ISI to theMinistry of Interior was written on December 19, 2007. The letter wasdirected to the Interior Ministry’s then-director coordination of theCrisis Management Cell Colonel Muhammad Imran Yaqub.
The letter, titled “President Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto and Fazlur Rehman’smurder plan”, read: “We have received this information that Osama Bin Ladenhas issued the order to kill President Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto andFazlur Rehman. He (Laden) has planned to send his courier, who is anational of Pakistan and a resident of Multan, named Musa Tariq, throughWaziristan with explosives to be used in executing the murder plots.
“On coming Sunday — which is December 22 — this person will be in thearea of Dera Ismail Khan,” it read.
The letter’s last three lines read: “Osama Bin Laden is personallysupervising this entire plan and for this reason, he has shifted toAfghanistan.”
The ISI requested the Interior Ministry to make urgent securityarrangements. The copies of the letter were also dispatched to the MilitaryIntelligence Directorate, General Staff Branch and General Headquarters,Rawalpindi.
After receiving the letter from the ISI, the General Staff Branch of theMilitary Operations Directorate of General Headquarters, sent a letter tothen-Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah on December 20 .
Six days before Bhutto’s assassination, another letter was issued warningabout the murder plots.
Before both of these letters were written, on December 11, 2007, ISI’sthen-chief Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj’s Colonel for DG Intelligence Fayyaz HussainChaudhary had written a letter to then-chief of the Crisis Management Cellof the Interior Ministry.
It was mentioned in the third letter that the terrorist and extremistgroups related to Al Qaeda had planned to murder Bhutto and herthen-security adviser Rehman Malik during the election campaign.
In the letter, the Interior Ministry was requested to make adequatesecurity arrangements. Following Bhutto’s assassination, a short letter wassent to Laden after two days.
The text of the letter read: “We have taken revenge for our brothers andsisters of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid.” It was recovered from Laden’s home.