Pakistan’s main state prosecutor in the 2007 murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 Mumbai attacks was shot dead in Islamabad en route to court yesterday, police said.
Chaudhry Zulfiqar was shot multiple times after gunmen intercepted his vehicle shortly after he left home in a busy, middle-class neighbourhood of the capital. His bodyguard was also wounded and a woman passer-by killed.
Zulfiqar was given extra government security last year after he was mentioned in threats received by police investigators working on the Bhutto case.
The source of the threats was unclear, but one investigator said he was told not to appear in court at Zulfiqar’s behest by an unknown caller using a number in Afghanistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, condemned the killing and ordered a thorough investigation to “expose the real culprits involved in the murder”, his office said.
Zulfiqar was also the main government prosecutor who indicted seven alleged conspirators in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people and which were blamed on Pakistan’s Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Pakistan indicted the seven in 2009 but has since said it needs to gather more evidence in India before proceeding further.
Source: The Daily Star