There is an increasingly active nexus between al Qaida and various extremist groups with the common interest of harming the Musharraf regime in Islamabad, CIA Director Michael Hayden said in an interview to The Washington Post.

“What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what’s going on there. You’ve got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active,” he said.

Bhutto’s assassination “was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that”, Hayden said, describing the killing as “part of an organised campaign” that includes suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.

Hayden declined to discuss the intelligence behind the CIA assessment, which runs counter to a view held in many quarters including that of the Bhutto family, who accuse President Pervez Musharraf’s regime of being involved in Bhutto’s death on December 27 last year.