ISLAMABAD: A teenaged boy arrested for alleged involvement in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto has identified the suicide bomber who blew himself up near her armoured car in Rawalpindi last month, a Pakistani official said.
Fifteen-year-old Aitezaz Shah, who was arrested from Dera Ismail Khan town of the North West Frontier Province, identified the bomber as a man named Bilal who belonged to the South Waziristan tribal region, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said.
Bhutto died in a gun and bomb attack after she had addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27. Shah has told police he was part of a five-member suicide squad sent by Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud to kill Bhutto.
Aitezaz Shah and his accomplice Sher Zaman, who was also arrested in Dera Ismail Khan, were brought to Rawalpindi and a court remanded them to police custody till February 1. Police also found materials used to make suicide jackets at Zaman's residence.
Interior Secretary Shah told the Daily Times that the teenaged boy had identified the suicide bomber during his interrogation by the Joint Investigation Team that is probing Bhutto's assassination. Investigators are verifying the information with Bilal's family and official records in South Waziristan, Shah said.
Shah also said the teenager had told his interrogators that he had been meeting Baitullah Mehsud but this "claim was yet to be verified". Zaman has not revealed anything so far, Shah said.
A team of investigators has gone to South Waziristan to meet Bilal's family to get more information about him. Reports said investigators had shown a picture of the suspected bomber to Aitezaz Shah, who identified him as Bilal.
There were also reports that police had arrested six persons in Rawalpindi on the basis of information provided by Aitezaz Shah.
The Interior Secretary also said that all but one of the 23 bodies found at the site of Bhutto's assassination had been identified, and this has given rise to suspicion that the remaining body could be that of the suicide bomber.
Shah also said that he did not know if the man who had fired shots at Bhutto was alive.
President Pervez Musharraf had blamed Baitullah Mehsud for killing Bhutto but the charge was denied by a spokesman for the Taliban commander.
