Update: Pakistani Authorities Identify Bhutto Assassin, Arrests Suspected Accomplices

January 8, 2008 8:19 p.m. EST

Islamabad, Pakistan (AHN) - Pakistani investigators have identified the assassin of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, while police have arrested suspected accomplices of the killer, who also died in the suicide bomb attack on the opposition leader.

According to a report of the local TV channel ARY, investigators did not give details about the assassin, who was traced with the help of the National Database and Registration Authority.

Police also did not identify the suspected accomplices who were arrested during a raid of the house of the assassin in Swabi, a town in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

The alleged assassin fired at Bhutto while she was campaigning aboard a vehicle in Rawalpindi on Dec. 27 before a bomb exploded killing him, the former prime minister and 20 people. Dozens were also injured in the attack that triggered riots across Pakistan.

Meanwhile, prominent Pakistani detective Zubair Mahmood has joined the team of detectives from Scotland Yard investigating the assassination. solved the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 and beheaded by an al-Qaida leader.

The British investigators are examining evidence from the scene of the bomb attack and the remains of victims.