Reports suggest Benazir's assassination may have been plotted

Islamabad, Jan 12 : Two new reports on the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto suggest that mystery remains about the person who organised the crowd after an election rally, which made Benazir come out of the roof the bullet-proof car to wave to people.

The reports also suggest that President Pervez Musharraf's Government knows more than it has admitted about the killing of Bhutto.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ishtiaq Hussain Shah, who was in charge of security arrangements at Rawalpindi's Liaqat Bagh and was also among those who sustained multiple injuries in the December 27 attack. hah said that he saw some people appear from nowhere and stop Benazir's car while she was leaving the rally.I don't know who they were or from where they came. They were carrying flags of the Pakistan People's Party and shouting pro-PPP slogans. They just appeared on the road," he added. I started to clear the way for Bhutto's vehicle. I saw a man who was probably wearing a grey jacket and sunglasses shoot from the crowd towards Bhutto. I jumped to overpower him. He was about 10 feet away from my position. A mighty explosion took place soon afterwards," Shah said.e said seconds later he found himself lying at a distance from the scene and darkness overtook the place.SP Shah said that he was on the left side of Benazir's car.eanwhile, the second report has detailed information about the pistol and bomb.

It rejects the government's conclusion that Bhutto died when the force of the suicide blast threw her head against the sunroof lever. Such an impact could not have fractured her skull, it said.

The government refused to confirm the report's authenticity, but a security official verified it, the McClatchy Newspapers reported.

According to the document, which a newspaper described as a "top agency" preliminary report, a pistol made by Norinco, a Chinese brand, was recovered from the scene.

Also found was a bomb-triggering mechanism, the same type, including lot number and factory code, used in 15 previous suicide bombings in Pakistan, the paper quoted the report, as saying.

"It is a clear indicator that the same terrorist group is involved in almost all these incidents," the report concluded.

Another mystery is why so valuable report has been buried. Among its other conclusions: After the attack, no ambulance was called, and it took 25 minutes to get Bhutto to the hospital, only two miles from the scene.

The crime scene was cleared immediately and washed, destroying vital evidence.

Doctors at the hospital where Bhutto was taken, who announced the night of the attack that she had died of bullet wounds to the head and neck, changed their story the next day.

ANI