Musharraf points to Malik hand in Bhutto murder

Malik was head of Bhuttos security when she returned to Pakistan from self-exile in late 2007.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials who questioned the former president after his arrest in the assassination case were told that Malik decided details of security for the December 27,2007 public meeting in Rawalpindi where she was killed.

Musharraf denied his involvement in the killing and said Bhutto was killed because of a security breach for which Malik was responsible,the Dawn newspaper quoted its sources in the FIA as saying. Musharraf reportedly made the revelation when he was questioned on Sunday.

The FIA worked under Malik during his stint as Interior Minister in the Pakistan Peoples Party-led (PPP-led)government. It was during Maliks tenure that the FIA was tasked with investigating the assassination. The joint investigation team for the probe was constituted by Malik and it never examined him in connection with the assassination.

Musharraf said it was Maliks responsibility to persuade Bhutto not to come out of her bulletproof vehicle because police could not force her to remain inside,the report said.

He further claimed that Malik was a mediator between his regime and the PPP and he negotiated with police for security arrangements at the election meeting at Liaquat Bagh,where Bhutto and 23 others were killed in a terrorist attack.

The joint investigation team decided to record Maliks statement to fulfil a legal requirement mandatory in such investigations,especially after the revelations by Musharraf,the sources were quoted as saying. The investigators will issue a notice to Malik and then record his statement.

Taliban attacks kill 10 in Pak

Ten people died and over 50 were injured in two bombings in northwest Pakistan Monday,including a suicide attack that killed the son and nephew of a member of the Afghan High Peace Council.

A suicide bomber targeted a police van in the morning on University Road,a busy thoroughfare of Peshawar,the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Qazi Hilal Ahmed,the son of Afghan High Peace Council member Qazi Amin Waqad,and Muhammad Idrees,the nephew of Hizb-e-Islami leader Maulvi Younus Khalis,were among nine killed in the attack. Ahmed was in Pakistan to invite clerics to a Ulema conference to be held in Afghanistan,his relatives said.

In the evening,one person was killed in an explosion outside ANP candidate Mohammad Ahmad Khans campaign office in Charsadda.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.