Pakistani minister resigns after he claims army killed Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan's minister for defence production has resigned after being summoned by the prime minister to explain comments he made criticising the army and accusing it of killing prominent politicians.

Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi accused the army of killing several high-profile Pakistani figures, including ethnic Baluch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

"We provided the army with uniforms and boots not so that they kill their own fellow countrymen, kill Nawab Sahib (Bugti] and Benazir Bhutto," said Mr Jatoi during a televised press conference on Saturday night in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani later summoned Mr Jatoi to explain his comments. He said yesterday that the minister made his statements "in his personal capacity, and within five or six hours he resigned".

The army is widely considered the most powerful institution in Pakistan and it is risky for officials to criticise it. The military has carried out three coups against civilian governments and has ruled Pakistan for much of its 63-year history.

Mr Bugti was killed in a August 2006 military operation. The 79-year-old's remote cave hide-out collapsed in an unexplained explosion while security forces were searching for tribal insurgents who fight for a larger share of natural resources extracted from impoverished Baluchistan. The exact details of his death are disputed.

Ms Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 after speaking at an election rally in a garrison city just outside Islamabad. The military-led government blamed the killing on the Pakistani Taleban, which stage attacks throughout the country from their sanctuary in the tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Critics speculated that Pakistan's military or intelligence apparatus could have been involved in the killing, which the government refuted.

The tribal areas also host a range of militant groups focused on battling Nato troops in Afghanistan. The United States has stepped up pressure on these groups this month by carrying out 19 missile strikes, including twoyesterday.

In the first strike, a drone fired three missiles at a house in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan tribal area, killing three suspected militants. Minutes later, a drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in the same area, killing four.

The exact identities of those killed were not known, but most of this month's strikes have targeted forces led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a commander who was once supported by Pakistan and the US during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.