Pakistan: Bhutto Died of Skull Fracture

[December 29, 2007]  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The Pakistani government said Friday that Benazir Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed but by a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack.

Bhutto died while campaigning for the crucial Jan. 8 parliamentary elections in which she hoped to return as prime minister. Upon her return from exile in October, she survived an assassination attempt. She had repeatedly complained that the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf did not give her adequate security.

Many of her supporters blamed Musharraf of complicity in her assassination. But Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told The Associated Press that the government had evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack.

Authorities on Thursday said Bhutto died from bullet wounds fired by a young man who then blew himself up, killing 20 other people. A surgeon who treated her said Friday she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull.

But later Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said all three shots missed her as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her vehicle, which was bulletproof and bombproof.

He also denied that shrapnel caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull.

At a news conference, Cheema played a videotape of the attack showing Bhutto waving, smiling and chatting with supporters from the sunroof as her car sat unmoving on the street outside a campaign rally. Three gunshots rang out, the camera appeared to fall, and the tape ended.

[Associated Press; By MUNIR AHMAD]

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