By IANS
Islamabad : Accusing the Pakistan government of mounting a massive cover up operation over former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, a close aide of the slain leader Saturday stoutly maintained that she died of gunshots.
“I saw the bullet wounds, it went through her head and she lost a lot of blood,” said Sherry Rehman, Bhutto’s spokesperson.
Rehman, who said she was in the former prime minister’s motorcade at the time of the gun and suicide attack Thursday, rejected outright government claims that the death was caused when Bhutto’s head hit the sunroof of her car.
“I was actually part of the party which bathed her body before the funeral,” said Rehman, who added that her car was used to transport Bhutto to hospital.
“There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side.
“We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood,” she said.
Interior Ministry Spokesperson Javed Iqbal Cheema said after Bhutto’s burial Friday the former prime minister didn’t die of gunshots or any blast, but was killed after she smashed her head with the sunroof lever while ducking down to get back into the vehicle.
He said three bullets were fired at Bhutto but none hit her and the firing was followed by a blast, which damaged her jeep. He said the attack was an act masterminded by Al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud and was carried out by two of his men.
Rehman further claimed that the hospital was made to change its statement and never gave a proper report.
“In fact the hospital changed its statement thrice,” she said.
“What the interior ministry is saying is ridiculous and dangerous nonsense because it is a cover-up of what actually happened.”
Bhutto’s lawyer Farooq Naik told IANS Saturday, a day after Bhutto was buried at her ancestral graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bux, that the government was pushing the country towards civil war by putting out false stories.
“This is a pack of lies. Are the makers of such a costly vehicle fools that the sunroof of the vehicle could fatally injure her?” asked Naik. He warned that such foolish statements by the government would turn the violence into a civil war.
“We are requesting our people to remain peaceful, but we won’t be able to do so if the government continues giving such statements,” he said.
Bhutto, chief of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), died Thursday minutes after addressing a public rally at Liaqat Bagh in nearby Rawalpindi while she was being driven away with her two close associates.
Initial reports said when some of her supporters surrounded her vehicle and raised slogans of “long live Bhutto” and “prime minister Benazir”, she appeared from the sunroof of her bullet-proof vehicle to wave at them.
While she was waving, bullets were fired at her followed by a blast and she fell down. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died.
Bhutto was an outspoken critic of Al Qaeda-linked militants, blamed for scores of bombings in Pakistan, and had received death threats. But she had also accused elements from the intelligence services of involvement in the suicide attack on her rally in October soon after her return to Pakistan that left 139 dead. She made a narrow escape.
Another PPP leader Farhatullah Babar said the government was doing all this to divert international and national attention from the real issues.
Cheema in his press conference also said no autopsy was conducted on Bhutto’s body as her husband Asif Ali Zardari had stopped the government from doing so, saying he didn’t want the body to be desecrated.
He however said an external post-mortem was conducted by taking X-rays that showed no traces of a bullet or shrapnel.