By IANS
Washington : The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) blames Al Qaeda and allies of a Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud for the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the US intelligence agency’s director Michael Hayden told the Washington Post.
This is the most definitive public assessment by a US intelligence official about who was responsible for the killing of the former Pakistani prime minister last month, the Post said Friday.
Mirroring Pakistan’s internal assessment, Hayden told the newspaper in an interview that Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan with support from Al Qaeda’s terrorist network.
Hayden has, however, declined to discuss the intelligence behind the CIA’s assessment, the newspaper said.
He described the killing as “part of an organised campaign” that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders, the Post said.
Hayden said the same network was behind a new wave of violence threatening the stability of President Pervez Musharraf’s government, a key ally in Washington’s war on terror, the newspaper said.
“You’ve got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between Al Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups,” Hayden said in the interview.
“It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists,” Hayden added.
Soon after the assassination of Bhutto in Rawalpindi, the Pakistan government said Mehsud, an Al Qaeda-linked militant leader, was behind the attack.