Pakistan arrests 2 in Bhutto slaying

Pakistani officials announced today that two more arrests had been made in connection with the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The arrests were the first apparent break in the case since last month, when police detained two suspects, including a teenage boy who told authorities he had been designated a backup suicide bomber in a continuing effort to assassinate the former prime minister.

Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack Dec. 27 as she left a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. The arrests announced today were made in the city, which is the seat of the Pakistani military.

The authorities’ announcement coincided with the return of a three-member team of investigators from Scotland Yard, who are to disclose their findings in coming days.

President Pervez Musharraf allowed the outside investigators to participate in the probe after critics at home and abroad said Pakistani authorities could not be trusted to carry out a full and impartial investigation of Bhutto’s killings.

Bhutto’s party, which held solemn ceremonies today to mark the 40th day since her death, remained skeptical that the truth about her assassination would come to light.

More than 10,000 people gathered in Bhutto’s ancestral village in southern Sindh province for prayers at the mausoleum where she was buried beside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was executed by a military dictator in 1979.

Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over leadership of her Pakistan People’s Party in accordance with her wishes, delivered an emotional address promising to carry on his slain wife’s legacy.

“If I am martyred before completing the mission of Benazir Bhutto, then I should also be buried here,” he said.

Zardari is widely mistrusted by Pakistanis because of corruption charges stemming from Bhutto’s two terms in office in the 1990s. It is not yet known whether he will be the party’s candidate for prime minister if it performs strongly enough in Feb. 18 elections to seek the post.

The latest arrests of suspects in the Bhutto case were announced by Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. He said the pair were scheduled to appear in a special anti-terrorism court as early as Friday, but he declined to detail their alleged roles.

“These are important arrests,” he told reporters.

Pakistani authorities have blamed militant Islamic leader Baitullah Mahsud for orchestrating Bhutto’s assassination, an assessment echoed by the CIA.

Mahsud, who has denied involvement in the killing, announced Wednesday that his supporters had agreed to a cease-fire with government forces in tribal areas where fighting has raged in recent weeks.

Senior officials in Bhutto’s party say they believe elements within the government were complicit in her killing. Zardari has demanded a U.N. investigation, but the government has steadfastly refused.

Bhutto’s party said that with the end of the formal mourning period, its candidates would resume large-scale rallies between now and the parliamentary vote, despite security fears.

Musharraf’s popularity has plummeted since March when he first attempted to fire independent-minded Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

In November, as the Supreme Court appeared poised to invalidate his reelection as president, Musharraf declared a state of emergency and sacked the chief justice, along with dozens of other senior jurists.

The state of emergency was lifted in mid-December, but not all liberties were restored. Many opposition party members say they fear rearrest, and independent broadcast outlets, which were barred from transmitting in the weeks that followed the declaration of emergency, have been operating under restrictions that bar criticism of the president.

Today a private television channel said it was temporary knocked off the air after it broadcast a commentary Wednesday night by a Musharraf critic. The channel, Aaj TV, was allowed to resume broadcasting hours later.

laura.king@latimes.com