Musharraf’s close aide, family flee to UAE to avoid quizzing in Bhutto assassination case

Islamabad, Apr.27 (ANI): Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf’s close aide Tariq Aziz has fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with his family, to avoid being interrogated by a fact finding committee, which has been formed by Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani to probe former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

According to reports, Aziz, his wife, two daughters and son-in-law took the first flight available to the UAE on Sunday soon after former Military Intelligence chief Major General Nadim Aijaz was summoned by the fact finding committee for interrogation.

Insiders said that Aziz remained in constant touch with Aijaz on December 27, 2007, the day Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

Speculations are also rife that Aziz along with Aijaz had ordered their subordinates to wash off the crime scene at the Liaqaut Bagh in an attempt to destroy vital evidence.

Meanwhile, Gilani’s advisor for Youth Affairs Mian Muhammad Ayub has said that the masterminds of Bhutto’s murder cannot escape punishment, notwithstanding how powerful they may be.

“If inquiry committee finds any evidence against ex-president Pervez Musharraf’s involvement in it, he would be brought back through Interpol,” Ayub told mediapersons after offering floral tributes to Bhutto outside the Liaqat Bagh.

He said strict action would be taken against the perpetrators, whosoever is held responsible for the crime in the fact-finding commission’s report.

“I assure the whole nation that killers will be unveiled and they would be strictly taken to the law. No body was nominated in the UN’s report however investigation committee has started proceedings and as and when its report is finalized, action will be taken against those found involved in the murdering Benazir. They might be hanged,” Ayub said. (ANI)

Onus on Pak to unveil 26/11 conspiracy, says Krishna

New Delhi, Sep.10 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Thursday put the onus of unveiling the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks on Pakistan.

While confirming that the foreign secretaries of the two countries – Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir – would be meeting in New York on the sidelines of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, Krishna ruled out having any meaningful dialogue with Islamabad till it took concrete steps to nail those responsible for last year’s terror strike.

Krishna also said that he would be meeting his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York.

He said Rao and Bashir would discuss the progress made on the investigation of the 26/11 attacks and prosecution of those arrested in connection with it.

“It is in our vital interest to normalize our relations with Pakistan. However, we are at a stage where it is for Pakistan to determine the kind of relationship that it wants to have with India,” Krishna told the Editors Guild in New Delhi.

“Clearly, the onus is on Pakistan to unveil the conspiracy,” he said, adding India had sought to “assist” them in that task by providing vital evidence.

He said Pakistan is safeguarding terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed and that the Indian Government was in no doubt that he was the brain behind the Mumbai terror attack.

Krishna underlined that terrorism would remain his focus when he meets Qureshi.

New Delhi maintains that it has given enough evidence to Islamabad for it to prosecute the 26/11 accused.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is currently in the United States briefing the Obama administration about the steps New Delhi has taken so far vis-’-vis the 26/11 probe, has categorically stated that the Pakistan Government is holding up the trial of Saeed and other state actors. (ANI)

MJ’s death probe: Cops discover secret email accounts

London, Aug 24 (ANI): Cops investigating Michael Jackson’s death have discovered two secret email accounts he may have used to buy prescription drugs.

The detectives said they have recently discovered the King of Pop operated the Gmail and AOL sites.

“They could hold vital evidence with regard to Michael’s death and the drugs he was using regularly,” the Mirror quoted a source close to the investigation as saying.

“Not only did he get prescription drugs through a network of doctors, it’s believed he may also have got them from illegal websites or drug cartels. The LAPD has to get a search warrant first and this takes a few days,” the source added.

It has also been said that police have got the number for a private mobile phoneline used by Jacko.

The detectives had not been told about the rarely used number until last week. There’s a possibility that the ‘Thriller’ hitmaker used the phone to contact people for his drugs. (ANI)

Beijing upholds two-year sentence for rights activist

Beijing – A Beijing court has upheld a two-year prison sentence for a rights activist without holding an open appeal hearing or considering vital evidence not presented at her trial, her husband said Tuesday.

The court notified an attorney for Ni Yulan that it had rejected her appeal of a prison sentence passed in December for “obstructing public business,” her husband, Dong Jiqin, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The court continued to withhold “crucial evidence,” including a video that authorities said allegedly contained footage of Ni beating police officers, Dong said by telephone.

Dong had prepared a defence case for Ni’s trial in December, but he was not allowed into the courtroom.

The court also objected to well-known lawyer Li Fangping representing Ni in the appeal, Li told US-based Radio Free Asia.

Dong said lawyers were allowed to visit Ni about two weeks ago.

“Since she was arrested, I have not seen her at all,” Dong said. “It’s nearly one year.”

Ni, 48, was arrested on April 15 when she tried to stop about two dozen people from knocking down a wall enclosing part of the yard outside their home, which they had refused to vacate for developers despite years of pressure and threats.

She spent eight months in detention before her trial.

The police claimed that Ni caused serious injury to a worker while she was trying to stop them from damaging her property.

They later accused her of kicking an officer while in custody, Dong said earlier.

Ni was left disabled after alleged abuses during an earlier spell of police detention.

Her career as a lawyer was first interrupted in 2002 when police illegally detained her for 75 days for filming a forced relocation.

During that detention, Dong said, Ni was beaten and not given medical treatment. She was left with permanent back and leg injuries and now walks with the aid of crutches, he said.

Ni then lost her right to practise law after a criminal conviction in late 2002 on the same charge of obstructing public business.

She told her lawyer that the police had confiscated her crutches and made her crawl to use the bathroom during her latest detention, Dong said.

Authorities in Beijing’s Xicheng district razed the family home in November as part of a local government redevelopment plan. (dpa)