PAKISTAN:Pakistani investigators were yesterday questioning a teenage boy who allegedly confessed to being part of the plot to kill Benazir Bhutto - the first apparent breakthrough in the three-week-old inquiry.
News of the arrest was rejected by Bhutto's party as a "cock and bull story" intended to reduce pressure on President Pervez Musharraf as he embarked on an eight-day European tour yesterday.
Human rights groups warned that the confession may have been obtained under torture and repeated calls for an independent international investigation.
Aitzaz Shah, described as 15 or 18 years old, was arrested in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan last Thursday, according to local media reports.
Shah, a madrasa student from Karachi, told intelligence officials he had trained as a suicide bomber in the lawless South Waziristan tribal agency and was part of a five-man squad assigned to kill Bhutto.
His orders were to explode his suicide vest near Bhutto if the first bomb and bullet assault failed, Dawn newspaper reported.
It was not clear if the young militant was in Rawalpindi on December 27th at the time of the attack.
His version of events strengthens government claims that Bhutto's killing was masterminded by Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander who holds sway across a large part of South Waziristan.
That is rejected by Bhutto's People's Party, which accuses government agents of orchestrating the operation.
"The genesis of this story lies in linking Benazir Bhutto's death with Baitullah Mehsud," said a spokesman. "It is an exercise in PR."
In an interview on Friday, the CIA director, Michael Hayden, also blamed Mehsud for the attack. The Taliban commander has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Yesterday Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Mehsud strongholds. This follows fierce fighting in South Waziristan last week during which government forces temporarily lost control of two military forts.
Human Rights Watch cautioned that Shah's confession could not be trusted. Ali Dayan Hasan, its South Asia researcher, said: "Torture is endemic as a method of interrogation in Pakistan. The authorities have a history of getting anyone to say anything that fits their theory."
The last three detectives in a Scotland Yard team assisting with the Bhutto investigation flew back to the UK yesterday with evidence for analysis. Their findings are expected by the middle of next month.
But expectations for the report are low. The British detectives have been tasked to establish the cause of Bhutto's death, not the identity of her killer.
Security forces were on alert across Pakistan yesterday as Shias celebrated the Ashura festival.
In Karachi police arrested five suspected militants who were allegedly planning to mix cyanide with the water supply at one of the parades.