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Bhutto 'died after hitting head on car roof', Pakistan government claims

By Jenny Booth / Times of London

The Pakistan Government tonight claimed that Benazir Bhutto did not die from bullet wounds, as previously thought, but from hitting the sunroof of her campaign vehicle.

The dramatic statement came as the murdered political leader's funeral drew to a close and the violence that has convulsed the country since her death intensified.

The interior ministry said at a press conference that video of Ms Bhutto's last moments and an examination by doctors had shown that Ms Bhutto died apparently accidentally, as a suicide bomb blast went off at her political rally in Rawalpindi last night, killing around 20 people. No full post mortem examination had been carried out at the request of Ms Bhutto's husband, it was reported.

Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Ms Bhutto had died from a head wound after smashing against the sunroof’s lever as she tried to shelter inside her car. "There is no evidence of any foreign element in her body," Brigadier Cheema said. "No bullet hit her, nor any splinters hit her. Unfortunately, it was to be that way.

"I wish she had not come out of the roof top of her vehicle."

But Ms Bhutto's lawyer and a senior official in the PPP, Farooq Naik, rejected the Government's claim as "baseless".

"It is a pack of lies," he said.

"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head.

"It was a serious security lapse."

At the press conference, Brigadier Cheema insisted the Government had done everything in its power to protect Ms Bhutto. He said everybody at the rally in Rawalpindi had been searched, Ms Bhutto's rostrum had been bulletproof, and "all possible security arrangements were made within the resources of the Government of Pakistan".

He added: "It pains me, I say with a lot of anguish, that we wish she had not come out of that vehicle to wave to the people."

The Government also claimed it had intercepted a phone call which proved that al-Qaeda had masterminded the assassination attempt. Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of Islamist extremist fighters in South Waziristan, was heard on the recording congratulating his followers on the murder, reporters were told.

Brigadier Cheema revealed that the Government had a list of other public figures, including opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who it believes are also under threat.

At least 32 people have died so far in rioting across the country by Ms Bhutto's angry supporters, with banks looted by mobs, shops set on fire and railway stations and trains torched.

Six workers burned to death in Karachi tonight after a rioting mob set fire to a leather factory. A luxury car showroom, a medicine factory and a private hospital were also ransacked.

Thousands of troops have been deployed on the streets of Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh, with paramilitary rangers given permission to shoot rioters.

Earlier today Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and three teenage children - Bilawal, 19, and daughters Bakhtawar, 17, and Asifa, 14 - accompanied her body as it arrived by helicopter from Rawalpindi for burial near her ancestral family home in the town of Naudero, 350 miles from Karachi.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the streets of Naudero, many weeping and beating their heads as they walked behind the white ambulance that carried her flag-draped coffin the three mile journey from her family home to the magnificent, three-domed mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Baksh where her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, another charismatic political leader to die a violent death, already lies buried.

"As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto," shouted some.

Others chanted: "Shame on the killer Musharraf, shame on the killer US" and promised: "No matter how many Bhuttos you kill, a Bhutto will emerge from each house."

The route passed a railway line where a train set on fire by her furious supporters last night was still smouldering. Posters which read "Benazir you are hope for the poor", heralding her return two months ago from eight years of self-imposed exile to contest parliamentary elections, still dotted the route where her body passed on its stately, two-hour progress.

A huge roar went up as the coffin, covered in the red, black and green flag of her Pakistan People's Party, arrived at the gates of the white mausoleum. Inside, a mullah led funeral prayers, while the crowds raised their hands in front of their faces and chanted "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Great) three times.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of Mr Zardari as he and Bilawal helped to lower Ms Bhutto’s coffin was lowered into the grave, and afterwards he comforted his son.

The authorities in Sindh braced themselves for further violent unrest as the televised burial procession, which riveted attention across Pakistan, drew to a close. The government has deployed 16,000 troops across Sindh to maintain order and given paramilitary troops on patrol in Karachi permission to shoot rioters on sight in order to protect property.

Seven banks and a petrol station were raided in the city of Multan by a mob 7,000-strong, and three banks were ransacked in Karachi, where Ms Bhutto lived. State-run grocery stores were burned, and trains and railway stations set on fire. Police in Hyderabad opened fire on a crowd.

The country has been plunged into political uncertainty, with no firm decision yet taken whether the elections which were due to take place on January 8 - in which Ms Bhutto had stood a strong chance of being elected Prime Minister for a third time - would now go ahead.

Mohammedmian Soomro, the caretaker Prime Minister, said today that he would be writing to other political leaders to consult on how to proceed. "Right now, the elections stand where they were," he said.

Political leaders including President Bush and Gordon Brown have urged President Pervez Musharraf to press ahead with the vote.

With Ms Bhutto's party leaderless, however, and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, pledging that his party will boycott elections, any poll that goes ahead may lack credibility.

Cities across Pakistan came to a standstill, with schools, public offices and private businesses shut and public transport halted, as the country began three days of official mourning for the opposition leader.

In a televised broadcast last night, Mr Musharraf blamed the killing on the resurgent Islamic militants who make their base in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Ms Bhutto's life had been threatened in the past by Islamists, who despised her for her support for Washington and as a female political leader.

"We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out," said Mr Musharraf, in his address.

Brigadier Javed Cheema, an interior ministry spokesman, laid blame badly at the feet of the extremists today, saying that al-Qaeda was "in all probability" to blame.

Saud Aziz, the chief of police in the army garrison city of Rawalpindi where Ms Bhutto was killed, said however that it was too early to say who was responsible for the murder. A joint task force of police and intelligence agency officials were investigating, he added.

Supporters of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party have blamed the Government for failing to protect her, and rioters have accused the security services of complicity in the killing. Angry protesters chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog" in demonstrations across Sindh.

World leaders accused the murderers of an attempt to destabilise Pakistan's already fragile political landscape. Mr Bush, who spoke to Mr Musharraf last night, condemned the "murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy".

The killing has destroyed Mr Bush's hope of stabilising Pakistan - a key US ally in its 'war on terror' - by encouraging a political alliance between the former military dictator Mr Musharraf and Ms Bhutto as Prime Minister.

There is little prospect of a similar pact between Mr Musharraf and Mr Sharif, who loathes the man who deposed him and who unceremoniously kicked him out of the country as recently as October.

"Musharraf is the cause of all the problems," Mr Sharif said this morning, calling on the president to resign.

Ms Bhutto, 54, was Pakistan's best known political figure after the President. She served two terms as Prime Minister between 1988 and 1996.

Yesterday's bombing was the second attempt to kill her since she returned to Pakistan in October to contest parliamentary elections, in the hopes of winning power for a third time. More than 150 people died on October 18 in a suicide bombing on Ms Bhutto's political procession, and it was only by chance that she herself narrowly escaped serious injury. Yesterday's event was the first major political rally she had held since the earlier bombing.

Her murder happened as Ms Bhutto had already finished speaking, and had got into her car. She was shot in the neck as she stuck her head out of the sunroof, smiling to acknowledge the chants of the crowd. The attacker then detonated a bomb.

"I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down," Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a PPP official, said.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office today warned Britons against all but essential travel to Pakistan. It revised its travel advice, urging those already in the country to stay inside and not go out until the situation became clearer because of the "risk of continuing violence".