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Published 29 Mar, 2011 10:06pm

Accused in Benazir killing case seeks bail

RAWALPINDI, March 29: One of the seven accused arrested in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case on Tuesday filed a bail plea with the Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi bench, saying the investigators have no proof against him.

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh and Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Tariq took up the application of Sher Zaman who along with six other men is in the Adiala jail facing trial.

The division bench of the LHC directed the Joint Investigation Team of Federal Investigation Agency to produce the relevant record in the court during the next hearing, the date for which will be fixed by the registrar office.

Through his counsel Khurram Mehmood Qureshi; Zaman maintained that the only proof against him was a confessional statement given by another accused, Aitzaz Shah, who had been declared as a juvenile.

Aitzaz in his statement had claimed that he was 19 years old and he and Zaman knew the conspiracy hatched by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in the tribal areas to kill Ms Bhutto. He had said TTP commander Baitullah Mehsud had arranged the suicide bombers.

Zaman in his bail plea said a medical test conducted on Aitzaz had declared the latter not older than 16 years.

The result of the medical test created doubts about the confessional statement recorded by a judicial magistrate in Rawalpindi in January 2008, he added.

Zaman and Aitzaz were arrested in Dera Ismail Khan and the police claimed that explosives were recovered from their custody.

On June 21, 2008, the anti-terrorism court denied post-arrest bail to Zaman saying he was involved in a heinous case of suicide attack on the public rally of the PPP that left over 20 persons dead.

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