Bhutto Killed By Blast, Not a Bullet, Scotland Yard Concludes

Scotland Yard waded into the controversy around Benazir Bhutto's death yesterday when it released a report supporting the official explanation of how the opposition leader was killed.

After a month-long investigation based largely on x-rays and video evidence, British investigators concluded that Bhutto was killed by a bomb blast and not, as is widely believed in Pakistan, by an assassin's bullet.

But their findings were rejected by Bhutto's party, the Pakistan People's party, which insists that Bhutto was felled by gunfire as she stood in her bulletproof jeep after a rally in Rawalpindi on December 27. "She died from a bullet injury. This was and is our position," said spokeswoman Sherry Rehman.

A lawyers' leader, Aitzaz Ahsan, said the report could only be "speculative" because the crime scene had been scrubbed clean by officials within hours of her death.

The debate over the manner of Bhutto's death highlighted public suspicion of the government inquiry into the killing, which traumatized the country and caused elections to be postponed until February 18. Initial claims by the interior ministry that Bhutto died by hitting her head against a sunroof handle drew hoots of derision and stoked suspicions that the government was trying to exculpate itself.

President Pervez Musharraf named Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud as the man behind the plot. Bhutto supporters said the militant was a scapegoat to mask possible involvement by the state, in particular the intelligence agencies.

Musharraf rejected such speculation and called in Scotland Yard investigators to reassure the public.

Yesterday the British team concluded that the evidence was sufficient to form an "overwhelming conclusion" that Bhutto was killed by a suicide blast that smashed her head against the escape hatch of her jeep as she ducked inside. They said nothing about who was behind the attack.

"The only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb blast," wrote Home Office pathologist Nathaniel Cary. Also, Bhutto was killed by a lone assassin, detectives concluded, and not by a team of killers, as many Pakistanis believe.

Critics said the British investigation lacked credibility due to its narrow terms of reference. Under the agreement between Musharraf and London the crucial question of determining the killers' identity has been left to Pakistani detectives.