KARACHI, Pakistan - The detective leading Pakistan's inquiry into the suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto withdrew from the case Wednesday after the former prime minister accused him of involvement in the abuse of her husband in 1999, a senior official said.
Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem, home secretary of Sindh province, said the government would form a new team to investigate the deadly attack on Bhutto's homecoming parade in Karachi last week that killed 136 people.
Bhutto has blamed Islamic militants for the attack but has also accused elements in the government and the security services of complicity. She wants international experts to help with the investigation.
The two-term prime minister specifically objected to Manzur Mughal, a senior investigator in Sindh province, claiming he had been present while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was abused in custody on corruption charges in 1999.
Mohtarem said the provincial government had no doubt about Mughal's competency and professionalism but Mughal decided to withdraw to protect the inquiry from accusations of bias.
"The investigation team will be formed anew after Manzur Mughal disassociated himself from the investigation in view of the objections raised by Benazir Bhutto on the chief investigator's credentials," the home secretary said.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz later rejected the idea of bringing in outside experts.
"We know what we're doing. We don't need assistance," he told reporters, adding that Mughal's withdrawal "doesn't change the very fact that we have a whole process looking into such cases."
Concerns about Islamic militancy in the country were underlined Wednesday when the government announced it had sent 2,500 soldiers into a remote valley to combat a militant cleric who calls for Taliban-style rule in Pakistan.
But the attempt at intimidation apparently fell flat, as some 6,000 supporters of the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, gathered in a schoolyard to hear him speak just a few miles from where the soldiers deployed.
Fazlullah addressed the crowd from the back of a truckwith a dozen armed men standing around him as bodyguards. "The government has made a declaration of war," he said, according to a local journalist who was at the scene. "Is it a crime to sit in the home of Allah and to study the Koran?"
Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said the troops were deployed Tuesday across Swat, a mountain valley some 30 miles north of the city of Peshawar.
Militants responded by detonating a remote-controlled bomb near a convoy late Tuesday, wounding four soldiers. Arshad said seven suspects had been detained.
Fazlullah leads Tehrik Nifaze-Sharia Mohammed, a pro-Taliban group that sent thousands of volunteers into neighboring Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion there in late 2001. Pakistan later banned the group and jailed its founder, Fazlullah's father-in-law.
Bhutto, whose two governments between 1988 and 1996 were toppled amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, has returned to contest parliamentary elections due in January following talks on a powersharing deal with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
With encouragement from Washington, Bhutto and Musharraf are urging voters to support moderates who are willing to take on religious extremism.
Aziz played down concerns that security issues would prompt so many restrictions on the campaign that the elections would not be free and fair.
Officials initially proposed a ban on public rallies but backed down because of opposition protests. The government is now working on ways to make large gatherings easier to secure.
"We'll allow full campaigning. There is a misconception that we in some way may be restricting activity," Aziz said.
Information for this article was contributed by Munir Ahmad of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 10/25/2007