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Pakistani television has shown what it says appears to be pictures of Benazir Bhutto's killers, adding to the controversy over how the 54-year-old former prime minister died.
One set of blurred images of a two men in the crowd at the rally on December 27 during which Bhutto was killed were aired on Saturday night by DawnNews TV
The pictures, shot by an amateur photographer, appear to show a young, clean-shaven man, wearing a waistcoat and dark glasses, move towards the bullet-proof vehicle in which Bhutto was standing through the sunroof as she acknowledged the cheers of jubilant party activists.
Standing closely behind the young man is a man who is either in Arab dress or has a piece of white cloth draped around his face. DawnNews suggests that this man may be the suicide bomber.
The first image shows the two men looking straight into the camera.
Another image appears to show the young man with an outstretched arm pointing a gun at Bhutto. He is just a couple of metres away from the politician's vehicle. One of the party activists clinging to the vehicle seems to have spotted the man, Dawn suggests.
The third image shows activists around the vehicle ducking their heads in reflex to perhaps a shot or an explosion. Unfazed, the young man is still in their midst.
Another film shown on Pakistani television and also on CNN is taken from behind the supposed gunman. It shows him moving closer to Bhutto as her vehicle drives slowly through the crowd and then his raised hand holding what appears to be a gun.
Pakistan's interior ministry says that Bhutto died after fracturing her skull by hitting the sunroof of her armoured car, as she was thrown into the car by the bomb blast. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) insists that its former leader was killed when an assassin fired three shots at close range and then blew himself up.
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I believe that the reason why the government is hiding the cause of her death is because lets say if she was shot by a bullet or a shrapnel from the bomb, people would sympathize with her more. Instead the government is saying she died from a fracture skull caused by her hitting the sunroof (an accident that could've been prevented). This partially diverts people from suspecting government of not enough security provided to an accident which could've been prevented by Bhutto herself. But the fact is that she died, so it doesn't really matter how she died.
Secondly, the entire Bhutto family didn't have a thriving and a honest past. Starting with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Benazir's father), faced considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity for targeting leader of the opposition Abdul Wali Khan and his opposition National Awami Party.
Azhar Mirza, Springfield, USA
On March 23, 1973, the Federal Security Force, a paramilitary force under the alleged orders of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, attacked a public opposition rally at the Liaquat Bagh in the town of Rawalpindi and killed a dozen people; many more were wounded by their automatic gunfire.
Benazir's husband, Asif Zardari has about 15 different corruption charges against him. And not to mention, but Murtaza Bhutto, Benazir's younger brother was shot and killed, along with six supporters, in what was later determined to be, an ambush by police on 20 September 1996, under Benazir's government, when she was serving as a Prime minister and it is said that Asif Zardari arranged that assassination. In August 2004, Zardari finally admitted owning a £4.35m estate in Surrey, England, which the Pakistani authorities allege was bought with the proceeds of corruption.
Benazir Bhutto also had two different corruption charges against her. Regardless, how she was assassinated wasn't right, no one deserves that
Azhar Mirza, Springfield, USA
George,
You bring up an excellent point: We of the West are trying to make Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan into Western democracies where tribal chiefs hold all the power. While the end goal may be an enviable target, it is a long ways away - and not going to be achieved with Western military might.
Chip Clark, Edinburgh, Scotland
Only a fair and free eletion involving all the peoples of Pakistan will prevent the country from destroying itself. The west should give up their short term interest in the region and help to achieve democracy in Pakistan. This would create a tension in that region thereby reduction in military spending.That money could be diverted to uplift the basic infra-structures for the poor.
S.Muthusamy, Colwyn Bay, UK
its strange that even in modern age and time with all the technology and suurounded by so many people and witnesses, its not clear how did she die?
peace, Bristol, UK
We are looking essentially at the equivalent of the Wars of the Roses, or the French Wars of Religion, but without a monarch to defeat the baronies piecemeal and impose order. The clan wars are being fought at a level of violence below civil war, but nevertheless that's what is going on. Politics is civil war by other means.
You cannot have Western style democracy in societies where the basic element of regional power is the clan. It is stupid and also very patronizing of the West to try to persuade the inhabitants, who know this perfectly well, differently.
The central problem is, they have no institution or family with the perceived legitimacy of the European monarchies in about 1450. So they cannot make the tradeoff which we eventually made, and get order now, at the price of freedom, and then evolve to democracy later.
However, democracy now = anarchy and clan warfare. So maybe military dictatorship is the best you can hope for? Sad, depressing, but logical.
George Johnson, London, England
The former prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, we lost her but the begener for the coming generation of Pakistan for democracy and encourage people of Pakistan to remembers always her regarding freedom of people.
kibreab, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia