Al-Qaida leader did not kill Benazir

Al-Qaida-linked Pakistani militant Baitullah Mehsud was not involved in the assassination of former Pakistani premier and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, his spokesman said on Saturday. “I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Mehsud's spokesman Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Mehsud is one of Pakistan's most wanted militant leaders and is based in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border. However, the Pakistani government has accused Al-Qaida of killing Benazir, after which the nuclear-armed country has plunged into crisis. "We have intelligence intercepts indicating that Al-Qaida leader Baitullah Mehsud is behind her assassination," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said late on Friday. Cheema said authorities recorded an intercept in which Mehsud had congratulated his people for the attack. But Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party rejected the claim. Bhutto's party has said President Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her. A spokesman said the government must show solid evidence. "The government is nervous," he said. "They are trying to cover up their failure" to provide adequate security. Tens of thousands of Bhutto's supporters wept and beat their heads as she was laid to rest on Friday. At least 31 people died in violence since a suicide attacker killed the 54-year-old former prime minister on Thursday, stoking fears a January 8 election meant to restore civilian rule in the US ally could be put off.

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Google Video | December 29, 2007

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