iTems of LondonBenazir Bhutto died from banging her head after a bomb blast, not a gunshot wound, a Scotland Yard team concluded today (write Zahid Hussain in Islamabad and Sean O'Neill).
The controversial finding threatens to inflame the pre-election political atmosphere in Pakistan today, as it backs the government version of events in the aftermath of the election really assassination on December 27.
“In my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb-blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle,” Dr Nathaniel Cary, a British Home Office pathologist said in the report.
“In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device,” it added.
The report noted that despite the lack of a detailed search of the crime scene or post mortem on Ms Bhutto’s body, “the evidence that is available is sufficient for reliable conclusions to be drawn”.
The finding was immediately rejected by Mrs Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, who called for an independent UN investigation into the killing.
“She died from a bullet injury, this was and is our position,” said Sherry Rahman, a PPP spokeswoman.
President Musharraf claimed that the opposition leader died from injuries caused when she ducked into her vehicle after it had been attacked by a gunman and a suicide bomber when she was driven away from an election rally on December 27.
Ms Bhutto’s family and political supporters are about to resume campaigning for the parliamentary elections on February 18 now that the 40-day period of mourning for Ms Bhutto has ended. More than 10,000 people gathered in her home town of Naudero yesterday to mark the end of the mourning period.
The Metropolitan Police were invited to Pakistan by the authorities in January because of controversy about how Ms Bhutto died. The remit of the team was limited to establishing the cause of death and identifying where the attackers were. Its detectives have not inquired into who carried out the attack nor why it was mounted.
The British officers faced serious difficulties. They were not able to examine the body of Ms Bhutto and vital evidence had been destroyed at the crime scene when it was hosed down after the attack.
It is understood that the officers reached some preliminary conclusions from studying the car and conducting analysis of video footage and other material.
The request from Islamabad was not an easy one for Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to refuse. Almost every terrorist attack or plot against Britain in the past five years has had links to Pakistan and the al-Qaeda training camps in its tribal areas. Access to Pakistan and cooperation with its police and intelligence services is essential to Scotland Yard and the relationship can be fragile.
Hamid Nawaz, the Pakistani Interior Minister, said that the investigation was continuing and identified two men who have been arrested in connection with the assassination as Rafaqat and Hasnain. He said that the men were linked to an Islamic militant group but declined to give any further detail. The arrests were made in a middle-class district of the garrison town of Rawalpindi, where Ms Bhutto was killed.
Police in northwestern Pakistan claimed last month that they had arrested two other suspects, including a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have been part of the suicide squad that was assigned to kill Ms Bhutto.
The Government of Mr Musharraf has named Baitullah Mehsud, a pro-al-Qaeda tribal militant leader who is spearheading fighting against Pakistani forces in South Waziristan, as the mastermind of the assassination. Mehsud, 34, is the leader of Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan, which is seeking to establish conservative Islamic rule in northern Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.
Supporters of Ms Bhutto dismissed the claim that Mehsud was responsible for the assassination and accused the Government of a cover-up.
The moral of the story? If you're in an armoured car, don't stand up and wave through the roof.
And everyone who wants to see Musharef out should be made to read the PPP's statement, and asked if they honestly think Pakistan would be better with these nuts.