Scotland Yard investigators have backed the Pakistani Government’s claim that Benazir Bhutto was not shot, but died after a suicide bomb blast smashed her head against the roof of her armoured vehicle.

The team from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command also concluded that the former Prime Minister and opposition leader was killed by a lone assassin, instead of two, as many Pakistanis believe.

It did not say who was behind her assassination, and its findings were disputed immediately by Ms Bhutto’s aides, who blame the Pakistani Government for her death and want the United Nations to start an investigation.

The report threatened to increase political tensions in Pakistan ten days before delayed parliamentary elections, and to discredit British authorities further among an increasingly hostile Pakistani public.

Bhutto was killed by bomb blast

The team from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command have backed the claim that Benazir Bhutto was not shot

Multimedia

• Pictures: death of Benazir Bhutto

• Pictures: Pakistan

BACKGROUND

• Pakistan in turmoil as ‘martial law’ imposed

• Bhutto escapes as bombers kill 126

• Timeline: Pakistan's period of turmoil

• The man out to oust a President

• Internal crisis gives Pakistan reason for hope

The findings were released in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, just over a month after President Musharraf asked Scotland Yard to help to investigate the assassination of Ms Bhutto as she left an election rally on December 27. “In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device,” Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, who led the team, wrote in a summary of the report.

“At the time of the attack this person was standing close to the rear of Ms Bhutto’s vehicle. The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury.” Pakistani officials had hoped that Scotland Yard’s involvement would help to dismiss rumours that Ms Bhutto was killed by elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which has close links to Islamist militants.

The Government’s assertion that she hit her head on the roof hatch was undermined by video footage that showed at least one gunman shooting at her, and by aides who said that they saw a bullet wound when they washed her body.

Its investigation was also compromised by the lack of an autopsy, which Ms Bhutto’s widower refused to allow, and because the bomb site was washed with high-pressure hoses immediately after the blast.

The British team, which worked in Pakistan for three weeks, admitted that its work was hampered by those problems, as well as by the absence of “recognised body recovery and victim identification processes”.

It said, though, that there was sufficient evidence to draw reliable conclusions, including video footage and X-rays that were checked against Ms Bhutto’s dental records.

Nathaniel Cary, a British government pathologist, said that he could not exclude the possibility of a gunshot wound in Ms Bhutto’s neck or upper torso because X-rays were only taken of her head, the report said. However, given the severity of the head injury, Dr Cary did exclude the possibility of such a gunshot wound contributing to her death. “The only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb blast,” he said. “In my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle.”

The British team said that the issue had been confused by reports that Ms Bhutto had been standing through a sun-roof, instead of an escape hatch. It also said that the body parts of only one individual remained unidentified, suggesting that the gunman in the video footage was also the suicide bomber.It did not speculate over his identity or his motive because Pakistani and British authorities say that Scotland Yard’s remit was only to establish Mrs Bhutto’s cause of death.

President Musharraf and the US Central Intelligence Agency have blamed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taleban in Pakistan, for Ms Bhutto’s assassination – although he denies any involvement.

The Pakistani Government thanked the British team for its “dedicated professionalism”. “Now the focus of the investigation is on catching the culprits behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, which grieved the entire nation,” Brigadier Javed Cheema, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) refused to accept the British team’s findings, arguing that it had insufficient evidence to carry out a thorough investigation. “We find it difficult to agree with the report about the cause of death, that she was not killed by the assassin’s bullet,” said Sherry Rehman, a PPP spokeswoman.

A ‘whitewash’

“ Just as predicted, Scotland Yard was sent to Pakistan so as to whitewash Musharraf . . . Disgusting
Vierotchka, current.com

In the investigations of Benazir's death, they have shown the complacence that the good old Sherlock Holmes used to complain about. The gentlemen who came here were certainly under pressure and the state did not cooperate with them to the necessary level. Yet they are now parroting the lines given by Islamabad
pitafi.com

It’s an incomplete investigation at best, using scant forensic evidence . . . So for the Pakistanis, especially those aligned with her political party and that of Nawaz Sharif, who are suspicious of Musharraf generally and don’t trust his position on the assassination (and some claim he was responsible), this does little to settle things. If anything, it only further complicates matters.
lawhawk.blogspot.com

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