Pakistan poll indicates many believe gov't had role in Bhutto's death

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Nearly half of Pakistanis surveyed suspect that government agencies or government-linked politicians killed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to an opinion poll highlighting popular mistrust in the country's US-allied president. Bhutto, a former prime minister, was killed in a Dec. 27 gun-and-suicide-bomb attack that the government of President Pervez Musharraf has blamed on Islamic extremists. In the results of an opinion poll asking who "killed" Bhutto, released over the weekend, 23 percent of respondents said they suspected government agencies in the slaying, while 25 percent believed government-allied politicians were behind it. Only 17 percent said they suspected al-Qaida or Taliban operatives.