Blaming the country’s “ruler” for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, her husband Asif Ali Zardari, on Friday night rubbished Pakistan government’s claims that terror group al-Qaeda was behind the incident.

He also demanded an investigation into the assassination by an “international agency like the Scotland Yard”.

“The ruler has to take responsibility for everything happening in the country,” Zardari told CNN-IBN without taking the name of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Zardari alleged the government was “not interested” in protecting the “most popular” leader of the country despite writing to the authorities that they were not satisfied with her security arrangements.

“We know we have lost our property. Pakistan government is trying to give a new twist to the whole episode,” he said. The government was “playing a blame game and indulging in stupid debate. What we need is a serious debate,” he said.

When pointed out that the government was claiming that the family was against a post mortem on Bhutto, he said when he landed it was too late for any such action.

“It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her”

Here is AFP’s translation of the transcript of the alleged telephone conversation between senior al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud and another militant that the Pakistan interior ministry said had been intercepted after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The ministry said it had been translated from Pashto to Urdu. This is AFP’s translation from the ministry’s Urdu version.

... contd.