By NNN-APP
New York : A Scotland Yard investigation has concluded that PPP leader Benazir Bhutto died after hitting her head as she was tossed by the force of a suicide blast, not from an assassin’s bullet, The New York Times reported on its website on Thursday night.
Citing officials who have been briefed on the inquiry, the newspaper said the findings support the Pakistan government’s explanation of Ms. Bhutto’s assassination in December, an account that had been greeted with disbelief by her supporters, other Pakistanis and medical experts.
The British inquiry also determined that a lone gunman, whose image was captured in numerous photographs at the scene, also caused the explosion, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.
Pakistani authorities originally said there were two assailants, based partly on photographs splashed across the front pages of the nation’s leading newspapers.
Scotland Yard investigators verbally relayed their key findings to the government of President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, according to the officials.
The investigators are expected to present a formal report to the Pakistani government on Friday, as well as to Ms. Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, now co-chairman of her Pakistan Peoples Party, and the couple’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is a student in London.
Scotland Yard said through a spokesman in London that it would have no comment on the Bhutto report until after it was made public, according to The Times.
The British team is to present its report on Friday to the additional inspector general of police, Abdul Majid, who is leading the Pakistani investigation team.