Musharraf indicted in Benazir Bhutto assassination

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was indicted Tuesday in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, lawyers said. The retired army general, who took power in 1999 after a coup and ruled Pakistan as president for nine years, was charged by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, Geo News reported. Musharraf thus became the country's first military chief to be so charged. Pakistan has been under military rule intermittently for more than half of its independent history. Musharraf was indicted along with six others in the Bhutto killing, Geo News reported. He denied the charges and the case was adjourned until Aug. 27. The retired general was brought to the court under tight security from his sprawling villa outside Islamabad, where he has been held under house arrest since April after his return from years of exile abroad, Geo News said. The house arrest charge stems from a case relating to detention of Pakistani judges in 2007 when Musharraf was in power. Bhutto died in a suicide and gun attack outside Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007, after she had addressed an election campaign rally. The other six accused in the Bhutto killing include two former police officers, Xinhua News Agency reported. Musharraf, who returned to Pakistan in March after several years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London, faces several other accusations. He had returned to contest in the May 11 general elections but was disqualified.