ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — British anti-terror police joined the inquiry
into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Friday, invited by
Pakistan's president in an effort to dispel accusations of
government involvement.
President Pervez Musharraf
also wants to quell growing demands for a U.N. investigation
into the attack that killed the former prime minister Dec. 27.
He said the Scotland Yard investigators would provide
forensic and technical expertise but warned they would not be
allowed to go on a "wild goose chase and create a political
disturbance."
The British officers declined to comment
to reporters as they arrived at the Islamabad airport on
Friday.
The president, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror,
met Friday with senior security officials and the heads of the
nation's provinces to assess the damage caused by four days of
rioting sparked by Bhutto's killing, according to Pakistan
state radio.
Officials in Bhutto's Sindh province, the
site of the worst rioting, estimate about $1.3 billion in
damage.
Musharraf and his advisers also discussed ways
to maintain order in the country ahead of parliamentary
elections, which were postponed for six weeks until Feb. 18
following the unrest.
The government initially said
she was killed when the shock waves from the bomb slammed her
head into her vehicle. Her supporters say she was killed by
the gunman and accuse the government of a cover-up.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visited
Islamabad to pay his condolences to Bhutto's supporters.
"Those who have done this crime have targeted the
stability and security of Pakistan," he told reporters after
visiting the headquarters of Bhutto's party. "Extremism and
terrorism has no place in the minds and in the hearts of the
people of this region."
