Teenaged Bhutto murder suspect reveals the plot

PRIME TARGET: The 15-year-old suicide bomber had been asked to attack Bhutto if she escaped the attack.

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Islamabad: A teenaged boy arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination is said to have told investigators that his next target was the US consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Aitezaz Shah, the 15-year-old who was trained as a suicide bomber, told officials that he had been asked to attack Bhutto in Karachi in case she escaped the bid on her life in Rawalpindi.

Shah was part of a five-member squad sent by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Baitullah Mehsud to kill Bhutto. He had earlier said a member of the squad named Bilal killed Bhutto by shooting her and detonating his explosive vest as she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27.

The boy was arrested in Dera Ismail Khan town of North West Frontier Province along with an accomplice named Sher Zaman on Thursday.

Shah told interrogators yesterday that after Bhutto's assassination, he was directed by his minders to move to Karachi to target the US consulate, the Dawn newspaper quoted sources as saying.

The sources said Shah also told his interrogators that he had received terrorist training with two terror suspects Bilal and Ikram, whose names were mentioned in a phone conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and another unnamed militant leader that was intercepted by security agencies a day after Bhutto's assassination.

The other militant leader had named three men Bilal, Ikramullah and Saeed as the persons who had carried out the attack on Bhutto.