Islamabad: An absconding servant of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, who aroused suspicion with his "strange gestures" while she was delivering her last address in Rawalpindi last week, could provide a clue to her killing, Pakistan People's Party workers said.

Khalid Shahinshah, who was hired by Bhutto on the recommendation of her security advisor Rahman Malik, has been on the run ever since footage emerged of the strange gestures he had made while standing on the dais next to Bhutto while she addressed an election rally.

Shahinshah was standing on Bhutto's left during her speech and ran a finger across his throat which implied slitting the throat. Security officials have expressed concern at his "suspicious gestures" which could not be ignored.

They told The News that his arrest could "provide answers to many questions".

According to PPP workers, after Bhutto's speech, Shahinshah was in a rush to get inside her bulletproof vehicle and did not hold the door open for the former premier.

Local TV channels have aired the footage of him making the strange gestures.

Shahinshah was usually the last person to get into Bhutto's vehicle and at times, when there was lack of space in the car, he would stand on its footboard.

After Bhutto's assassination, Shahinshah stayed at Zardari House, her home in Islamabad, for two days. He did not attend Bhutto's funeral in her ancestral village of Naudero in Sindh province and went there only on the third day after her death, The News reported.

Meanwhile, a team from Britain's Scotland Yard joined Pakistani sleuths to probe the assassination Benazir Bhutto on Saturday, with the government saying it would be given "complete freedom" to carry out its investigation.

The five-member team from the Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command was briefed by Pakistani anti-terror experts on the investigations conducted so far into Bhutto's killing in a suicide attack last week.

The team flew into the federal capital a day after President Pervez Musharraf said he was "not fully satisfied" with the investigations so far.

Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said the British team would be given "complete freedom" to conduct its probe.

"We will let them work as they want to work," he said.

Source : PTI