By IANS
Islamabad : Controversy continues to surround Benazir Bhutto’s death with the Pakistan government Friday evening stating that the former prime minister was killed not by bullets or shrapnel but by hitting the sunroof of her vehicle as she tried to duck after a suicide attack.
Pakistan’s interior ministry spokesperson Brigadier Javed Cheema said Friday that no bullet or shrapnel was found on the body of Bhutto, who was killed Thursday evening in Rawalpindi after addressing an election rally.
Cheema said the opposition leader had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof’s lever as she tried to take shelter inside the car.
“The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull,” Cheema said. “There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.”
Cheema also claimed that Al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud ordered the killing of Bhutto and the Pakistan government has intercepts of congratulatory messages on her killing.
There was “irrefutable evidence that Al Qaeda, its networks and cohorts are trying to destabilise Pakistan”, he said.
He said that two high-level inquiries had been ordered – one a judicial and the other by the Additional Inspector of General of Police in Punjab.
However, doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital who tried to save Bhutto’s life said Friday that she had been hit in the head by shrapnel from the suicide bomb attack and that there were no bullet wounds on her body.
PPP leaders had Thursday claimed that she had been hit by bullets fired by the suicide attacker while she was waving to her supporters from the sunroof of her armoured SUV.
Mussed Khan, the surgical specialist of the hospital, told a press conference that no heartbeat or pulse could be recorded when Bhutto was brought to the hospital and she had no signs of life.
“The injury over Bhutto’s right ear had irregular edges. If there were any bullet injuries, it would have been a little opening and wide exit, but the cardiac arrest was due to brain injury,” the doctor said.
An X-ray also showed no signs of bullet injuries. Doctors tried to resuscitate Bhutto and performed an open heart massage before declaring her dead at 6.16 p.m., he said.
Pakistani investigators, meanwhile, have reconstructed a mangled human head hoping to identify the man suspected of killing Bhutto.
“We have retrieved a head and it has been reconstructed. We also found fingers and we’re carrying out DNA tests to make a comparison between the head and fingers,” said Saud Aziz, police chief in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
The blast killed 20 other people. Aziz said samples had been taken from the site for testing to determine what type of explosive had been used.
On Thursday, Bhutto was reported to have died of bullet injuries – to her head and neck.
The version going was that she had stopped the car and stood out from the sunroof of the SUV to wave at party workers. The assassin was standing behind the car and fired three shots at Bhutto from close range, hitting her in the back of her neck and her back.
The assassin, who was wearing a suicide vest then detonated himself, killing some 20 PPP workers and policemen standing there.
On Oct 18, Bhutto survived a suicide bomb hours after she returned from eight years of self-imposed exile in Karachi.
The Al Qaeda terror group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Bhutto.
“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) mujahadeen,” the Adnkronos International (AKI) news agency quoted Al Qaeda commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid as saying in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English.
According to the agency, Al-Yazid is the main Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.
“It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto…was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October,” AKI said.
“Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Bhutto,” it added.