Pakistan's Former Military Intelligence chief Maj Gen Nadeem Ijaz Ahmad has rejected as baseless reports that he had ordered hosing down of the site in Rawalpindi where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007,the media here said on Thursday. Ahmad,a relative of former President Pervez Musharraf,submitted a "detailed statement along with some documents" yesterday to a three-member committee formed by Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani to determine whether the ex-Military Intelligence chief ordered police officials to clean the crime scene,unnamed sources were quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. During his appearance before the committee,Ahmad "rubbished the notion of asking (former Rawalpindi police chief) Saud Aziz to hose the site," 'The News' daily reported. He also handed over evidence of threats he received in connection with the killing of former premier Bhutto,the daily reported. The committee did not question Ahmad,sources told 'The News'. After his introductory statement,Ahmad handed over a written statement to the committee. The committee is expected to decide whether it will again call Ahmad to appear before it after reviewing his written statement. The committee also recorded the statement of Rawalpindi Superintendent of Police Rana Shahid,who described the crime scene as "very big" and said only a part of it was hosed down. The News also quoted unnamed sources as saying that the committee had obtained the statements of DIG Khalid Qureshi,the head of the criminal inquiry team that probed Bhutto's murder; and officials of the bomb disposal squad and the state-run Rescue 1122 service. Prior to appearing before the committee,Ahmad met senior military authorities. The News daily quoted its sources as claiming that important records related to Bhutto from 2005 to December 31,2007 were burnt under the supervision of former Intelligence Bureau chief Brig Ejaz Shah. These records included information confided only to Shah and phone calls record of al-Qaeda-linked militant commander Qari Saifullah,mentioned by Bhutto in her last book as a person who posed a threat to her life. The Dawn quoted its sources as saying that police officials who appeared before the committee probing the hosing down of the site of Bhutto's assassination "had almost repeated what they had been quoted as saying in the UN fact-finding commission's report." None of the police officials said they had received orders from the Military Intelligence chief to hose down the site but described it as a "crowd management and public order measure taken after collection of necessary evidence," according to the sources. The UN commission's report had said the police's "actions and omissions," including the hosing down of the crime scene and failure to collect and preserve evidence,"inflicted irreparable damage to the investigation" of Bhutto's assassination. The UN panel's report had quoted a source as saying that then Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz was ordered to hose down the scene by Maj Gen Ahmad. Ahmad rejected this claim as "baseless",the media here said. Meanwhile,the Special Investigation Group of the Federal Investigation Agency,which has been asked to fix criminal responsibility for Bhutto's murder,yesterday questioned Saud Aziz and five other police officials responsible for the former premier's security.
