Bhutto killing labeled security threat

KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Some politicians and former judges in Pakistan see the assassination of Benazir Bhutto as a national security threat, a report said Monday.

Speaking at a seminar on national security in Karachi, former judge Wajihuddin Ahmed said the former prime minister, who died Dec. 27, was allowed to return from exile last October by "some forces" for their benefit "but she defied them and paid the price," the Daily Times reported.

He said the first attack on Bhutto on Oct. 18, from which she escaped unhurt, was the first message to her from the same unnamed forces to desist from politics of the masses. In the second attack Dec. 27, which killed her, all the evidence was erased, he said.

Imdad Chandio, a leader of the political party led by former Premier Nawaz Sharif, told the seminar anti-democratic forces never tolerated the Bhutto family whose members were seen as a constant threat to the dictators in the country, the report said.

Former National Assembly speaker Ilahi Bakhsh Soomor urged President Pervez Musharraf to bring all parties together for a plan to increase national security, the report said.

The speakers supported demands of Bhutto's political party for a U.N. tribunal to investigate her assassination.