Pakistani security officials investigating the death of Benazir Bhutto believe her killing was carried out by a single assassin with a gun and a bomb, according to an Observer article published on Sunday.| Wow. Amazing. Almost as if they have witnesses or something. |
One of the principal pieces of physical evidence was his severed head, the Observer said, adding that plastic surgeons had reconstructed the face and printed the picture in two national newspapers, offering Rs 10 million for information leading to his identification. The article quoted a police officer as saying that he had started running towards the gunman when he saw him raise his arm.
“He got there just too late, and he saw him lower his head just before the blast,” it quoted a senior Pakistani source as saying. “That is what the suicide bombers have been told to do to obliterate their features.” In this case, however, the tactic appeared to have failed, the Observer said.
It said that a second man with a beard and shawl, captured in pictures of the assassination, turned out to be an innocent bystander.
The government, it added, was sticking to its assertion that the assassination was ordered by Baitullah Mehsud, an Islamic militant with Al Qaeda links from South Waziristan. “US and British officials have said that an intercepted satellite telephone conversation in which Mehsud offers congratulations to a fellow militant for the killing appears credible,” according to the Observer.
It said the investigators had cross-checked thousands of calls made from the area around the assassination site in the run-up to the killing against lists of numbers used by suspected jihadis, leading to at least two arrests. However, the article said, there were still conflicting accounts of the cause of death, even within the current caretaker government.
‘Blast killed Benazir’: The Observer reported a Western official with extensive security expertise in Pakistan as saying that he believed “conclusively” that Benazir was killed by the blast from the bomb and not by an assassin’s bullet. “I do know the shots didn’t hit her. The Interior Ministry allowed me to be party to photos and other materials that showed it wasn’t a bullet,” the article quoted the official as saying.
The official, according to the Observer, said all the evidence supported the Pakistani government’s original – hotly contested – assertion that Benazir died from a violent blow to the head caused by the suicide blast as she ducked into her vehicle. “Film showing her headscarf lifting up after the shooting was caused by her attempt to quickly retreat into the car,” he was reported as saying.