Benazir hit by sun-roof of her car not bullet: Pak government

Dec 29:  After Benazir was laid to rest at the grave near Garhi Khuda Baksh village in Larkana beside her father; Pakistan’s Interior Ministry revealed that she died after hitting her head against sun-roof of her car.

The Ministry’s Spokesperson Javed Cheema said that she was not injured by the bullet or blast shrapnel but was killed when shocked Benazir hit her head against a lever on the sun-roof of her bullet-proof car, while she was waving to her supporters.

Cheema told to the press, "There was no foreign element in her body. There is no ambiguity about the fact that there was no pellet wounds or shrapnel wounds in her body,” by showing X-ray of Benazir’s skull.

“Unfortunately the tragedy took place because of the force created by the human bomb explosion that caused her to fall and she was hit by a lever of the sun-roof of the vehicle from which she had peeped out to greet supporters,” he added.

Earlier it was believed that Bhutto was killed by gunshots that hit her neck and chest.

“It had caused a fracture of her skull. If a bullet or shrapnel were to hit her it would have hit her on the left side. But she had suffered the fracture on the right side. She was unconscious and was clinically dead by then,” he mentioned.

Cheema also read out a conversation which was clearly pointing towards al-Qaeda’s involvement in the blast. The conversation was between Mehsud and a maulvi which said that two people namely Ikramulah and Badar were responsible for the blast and also Mehsud congratulated his people on the success.

Masood is regarded a commander of pro-Taliban forces and is based in South Waziristan region closed to Afghan border.

It is reported that an al-Qaeda leader based in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for the assassination, “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat the mujahedeen.”

This step by Pakistan government has possibly attracted few criticisms and probably seen as a measure to cover up the whole matter, death of a leader of such stature has again left Pakistan in isolation.

The most general question that comes to everyone’s mind is that the body of Bhutto was not sent to postmortem and was handed over to her family hours after the incident. Again the press conference only after her burial raises several questions that the Pak government has no answer.

Pakistan is at worst of its political crisis and democracy seems to be far away dream of Pakistan.