PAKISTANI police have arrested a teenager who was allegedly part of a five-man squad assigned to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, security officials said. The suspect, 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah, was arrested in the north-western city of Dera Ismail Khan while planning a suicide bombing during the Muslim festival of Ashura. Shah told interrogators he had been part of a back-up team of three bombers who were tasked with killing the former premier if the original December 27 attack by two men had failed. Interior ministry spokesman Iqbal Cheema could not confirm the arrest.Ms Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Rawalpindi. The government and CIA have blamed al-Qaeda and tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud for her killing.
| Shah went for training last year at a camp run by one of Mehsud's commanders in the tribal border region of Waziristan, security officials quoted him as telling investigators. |
Shah's whereabouts at the time of the attack were not immediately clear. One security official said he was in Rawalpindi, the city where Ms Bhutto was killed, while another said he was in the tribal area of Waziristan. One of the officials said Shah was arrested during a security check when he arrived in Dera Ismail Khan by taxi from the North Waziristan tribal area, which borders Afghanistan. He allegedly told officials that he came to collect a suicide jacket for an attack at the US consulate in Karachi, but the plan had been changed because of tight security for Ashura, which takes place tomorrow. Instead, he was ordered to launch an attack during an Ashura procession by the minority Shi'ite sect tomorrow, the officials said.