The dispute over how Benazir Bhutto met her death continued as newly released video footage appeared to undermine the Government’s account of the killing. It shows a man firing a handgun at her from close range as she stood up in a vehicle with its sunroof open during last Thursday’s rally in Rawalpindi. Her hair and shawl move upward as if she had been shot and she falls just before an explosion rocks the car. President Musharaff’s administration said Ms Bhutto was not hit by bullets and died from the force of the blast slamming her head against the sunroof.

Asif Ali Zardari, Ms Bhutto’s widower, told Channel 4 News last night that the footage confirmed that his wife was assassinated and the bomber was there to murder the assassin: “There is a difference of about a couple of seconds from the gunfire when she falls and then the bomb goes off. That means the bomber was there to murder the assassin. Simple as that, case closed.”

A medical report said that the doctors had made no determination about whether she was shot or not, giving the cause of death as “open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest”.

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