Nearly four years after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi in a suicide bombing and gun attack, seven police officers and Taliban militants have been charged with her killing.

Three other suspects are dead, including Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, and two others are still on the loose, reports Newsweek Pakistan.

“Seven accused including two police officers have been indicted,” public prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar said. The police officers were arrested a year ago while the suspected militants have been in custody for nearly four years.

 

The police officers were Saud Aziz, who was the Rawalpindi police chief at the time of the killing, and Khurram Shahzad, another senior policeman.

 

The five suspected militants are Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul, Rafaqat Hussain, Abdul Rasheed and Aitzaz Shah from the troubled northwest of the country, Azhar said.

 

All seven accused were indicted at the court in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi.

 

The five alleged militants are accused of “criminal conspiracy” for bringing the suicide bomber from the tribal belt in the northwest and keeping him at a house in Rawalpindi.

 

“(All) the accused denied the charges and demanded for trial‚” Azhar said‚ adding that the police officers were accused of a security breach and for their “failure” to protect Bhutto.

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Ted Mann