Pakistan police arrest another suspect in Bhutto case

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested on Friday another suspect in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a senior police investigator said.

"Yes, we have arrested a suspect and we are interrogating him," said the investigator, who declined to be identified.

He identified the suspect as Abdul Rashid but declined to give further details.

Private Geo Television said Rashid was suspected of providing "arms and ammunition" to those involved in the attack on Bhutto.

The two-time prime minister was killed in a gun and bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27 as she left an election rally.

Television footage showed a man firing three shots from a pistol at Bhutto moments before a bomb went off.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials have blamed Baitullah Mehsud, an al Qaeda-linked militant commander based in a tribal region on the Afghan border, for the assassination.

Police said as well as the bomber, identified as Saeed, alias Bilal, four other militants were present in and around the venue of the rally in Rawalpindi.

Police said on Wednesday that two militants, Hasnain Gul and Rifaqat, were arrested last week and had confessed to giving a pistol and a suicide-bomb vest to the bomber.

Two of the five militants police said were at the scene of the attack were still at large, they said.

Last month, authorities arrested two suspects including a 15-year-old-boy who admitted being a back-up suicide bomber if the Rawalpindi attack had failed.

The latest arrest came three days before general elections which were delayed from January 8 after Bhutto's murder.

Despite the explanations of the government as to how Bhutto was killed and who was responsible, supported at least in part by both the CIA and British police, many Pakistanis believe elements from the Pakistani government were involved in killing her.

(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)