By DPA
Islamabad : Investigators from Britain’s Scotland Yard arrived Friday in Islamabad to assist Pakistani authorities in investigating the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
A five-member team from London’s Metropolitan Police Service Counter terrorism Command were dispatched after a request from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Aidan Liddle, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Islamabad, said the team consisted of forensics specialists who would only be assisting the Pakistanis and not conducting their own investigation.
A few hours after its arrival, the British investigation team was given a briefing by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry about the probe carried out so far by the local investigators into the assassination of Bhutto, Geo news channel said.
Special Investigation Group of Federal Investigation Bureau’s Anti Terrorism department apprised the Britain’s Scotland Yard team about the evidence gathered so far in connection with the murder of PPP leader.
The team, after detailed consultations with the government, was to embark on a full probe into the incident and be extended full cooperation by Pakistani investigation team.
But it was not immediately clear whether the team would be allowed to contact witnesses and health officials who treated Bhutto at the hospital.
Officials from Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party have denounced Musharraf’s move to bring in Scotland Yard, and have demanded an independent investigation by the United Nations.
It remained to be seen how much light the British team would be able to cast onto the gun-suicide bombing attack that killed former prime minister Bhutto, 54, as she left a campaign rally on Dec 27 in Rawalpindi.
Local city workers washed the crime scene clean with fire hoses shortly after the attack, potentially destroying vital forensic evidence.
Musharraf, speaking to foreign journalists Thursday night, acknowledged that the workers should not have touched the crime scene and said he hoped Scotland Yard’s presence would help dispel a widespread belief that elements within his government killed Bhutto and then destroyed the evidence.