(Image source from: Biography.com)

Two Senior Cops Sentenced to 17 Years Imprisonment : Benazir Bhutto Assassination Case:- Two senior police officers have been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment by a special anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in the Benazir Bhutto Assassination Case. The court has even acquitted five other suspects.

Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been declared by the court as a proclaimed offender in the case. The court further ordered seizure of Pervez’s property.

(Image Source: The Telegraph)

On December 27, 2007, when she came out of park after addressing an election rally, Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bombing attack in Rawalpindi. Bhutto is a two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan. Soon after the assassination, a case was registered and the trial went through many ups and down until it concluded on August 30 in Rawalpindi.

(Video Source: IndiaTV)

The sentenced officers were then Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz and SSP Kurrum Shehzad. Initially, they were arrested, but later released on bail in 2011. Soon after the assassination, the five other suspects - Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid were arrested and have been in prison.

The trail of Pervez Musharraf will be held separately on his return to Pakistan. Musharraf was the President when Benazir Bhutto was killed.

In January 2008, the main trial of the five suspects began, while in 2009, after fresh probe by Federal Investigation Agency, Gen. Musharraf, Aziz and Shahezad were implicated.

During this period, eight different judges heard the case and were changed due to different reasons.

Initially TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud was blamed for the murder. This was because a taped conversation of Mehsud with a certain operator was issued by the Musharraf’s government, in which he was congratulating the operator for the murder. But, the evidence of audio record and transcript of telephonic conversation, was disowned by FIA Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry in his concluding arguments. He termed it as a cooked up story gen. Musharraf to mislead the investigators and to save himself.

SUPRAJA