PPP rejects report of Scotland Yard investigators; Bhutto’s assassin(s) may remain mystery for a long time

Although the Scotland Yard investigators, who were assigned the task of investigating into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, on Friday unveils its report declaring that she was killed by impact of the blast and not by gunfire, perhaps it will remain a mystery as to who was behind the attack on her.

The Scotland Yard report backed the stance of the Pakistani government about assassination of Bhutto, who was leading election campaign of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) when killed in Rawalpindi city near Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad on December 27.

In its report, the British investigators said that the attacker fired gunshots at Bhutto when she waved to her supporters after addressing a rally but missed his target and then detonated explosives, causing her head to fatally smash against her car.

“In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device,” said the report summary signed by British Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne. “The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury,” added the summary of the 70-page report delivered to Pakistan’s interim minister for interior.

According to the summary read by Additional Inspector-General of Police Punjab Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, who headed Pakistani investigation team, at a news conference in Islamabad, rejected the notion that there were two separate persons and one of them fired gunshots while the other detonated improvised explosive device. It said that the same person first fired a gunshot and then detonated explosives.
The British investigators concluded that it became difficult to ascertain in absence of a detailed search of the crime scene, post-mortem report and the absence of recognised body recovery and victim identification processes as to what had really happened. But according to them whatever evidence was available was sufficient to reach a reliable conclusion.

The report said the investigators mostly depended on the X-rays of Bhutto taken at the Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was shifted immediately after attack, while some important information was also received from the hospital staff who attended her at the hospital and her family members who bathed her body before burial.

The British team of forensic and other experts, who spent two-and-a-half weeks in Pakistan last month at the invitation of Islamabad, said: “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,” it quoted British government pathologist Nathaniel Cary as saying. However, the pathologist added, it could not be completely ruled out that a bullet might hit upper part of Bhutto’s body.

The Scotland Yard experts said that when they reviewed their conclusions in light of the views of those who were close to Bhutto’s body and other evidence, it was revealed that there was no bullet wound. According to the report, the intensity of the impact of explosives used in the bombing can be 6,000 to 9,000 metres per second.

The report said that the B-6 grade armour used in Bhutto’s car was capable of preventing damage by bullet or a blast but unfortunately what is being described as sunroof is not sunroof but an emergency exit window, having a nine-centimetre lever. It said a careful view of the available video footage showed that head of Bhutto had not disappeared from the scene until six seconds before the blast. But, it said, it could not be ascertained absolutely as where was her head at the time of blast. Therefore, it added, it could be concluded certainly that at the time of blast she could not shift her head within the vehicle.
The report said that suicide bomber was in the rear of Bhutto’s vehicle at a distance of just one-to-two metres.

In these circumstances, the important question as to who was behind assassination of Bhutto still remains unanswered. The Pakistani authorities have claimed to have arrested four persons in connection with the incident but the information so far made public is insufficient to put an end to speculations as to who was involved in the terrorism act: Al-Qaeda, Pakistani militants or any other group.

A debate on assassins of Bhutto is going on since December 27 incident but the accusation by Bhutto herself of 16-year-old Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, has added a new dimension to this debate. Bhutto accused Hamza of leading one of the four groups that were sent for suicide bombing in her homecoming rally in Karachi on October 18 last year.

Bhutto had been accusing the extremist elements but she accused Hamza for the first time and according to her she was informed in this regard by President Musharraf and a friendly Islamic country. She made this disclosure in her latest book which is going to hit the market within a few days.

The ideological war between Bhutto and Osama bin Laden is no secret, as Bhutto had in the past accused Osama of playing role in toppling her government whereas religious elements did not like her statements against the extremism. Therefore, the world community and Pakistani regime are suspecting involvement of Al-Qaeda in assassination of Bhutto. “After failing to strike in the western countries, Al-Qaeda may have shifted its focus to the pro-US Pakistani leaders,” an analyst said.

As to why Bhutto name Hamza bin Laden immediately after the Karachi bombing of Octoer 18 and considered mentioning his name in her book only necessary, some analysts say her silence might be aimed at making her book popular in the west or achieving some political objectives.

Bhutto has also mentioned Baitullah Mahsud, a Pakistani militant commander, and a Karachi-based group and the Pakistani government is also portraying them at the second place among suspects after Al-Qaeda. However, the PPP had said after the Karachi incident that it had been assured by Mahsud he did not want to kill Bhutto. When PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar was asked why Bhutto mentioned Mahsud in her book, he said that she did not name any group linked to Al-Qaeda.

“This is the reason that we have demanded a probe by the United Nations so that facts can be unearthed. We don’t know anything. PPP has never tipped any particular group but has said that whichever group is involved is not working independently. If Mahsud or any other group did it, definitely there is a big organisation, which needs to be unveiled,” Babar said.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which came into being recently, has distanced itself from assassination of Bhutto. According to its spokesman, Maulavi Omar, she had initially announced to eliminate the Taliban and hand over the tribal region to the United States but later they developed harmony in telephonic contacts, which removed misunderstanding between the two sides. He said they were satisfied after those contacts and the issue stood settled.

Maulavi Omar said they were neither political rivals of Bhutto nor was there any other contentious issue. He claimed they were fighting Pakistani regime and did not attack general public.

Military analysts say that any Pakistani group might have attacked Bhutto on persuasion of Al-Qaeda. In this regard, they point finger to the banned Jandullah group, which might benefit more and lose less by killing of Bhutto.

It is believed that the Karachi-based group mentioned by Bhutto in her book might be Jandullah. However, most of the activities of this banned outfit have so far been confined to Karachi only.

Bhutto’s party and some other people also suspect her political opponents and Pakistani regime but President Musharraf has repeatedly rejected such claims. Some others even suspect some foreign hands, including the US secret services, were involved in assassination of Bhutto and describe the objective of any such actor as destabilisation of Pakistan to declare it a failed state so that its nuclear weapons could be grabbed.

Keeping in view these circumstances, the speculations about the real culprits behind assassination of Bhutto and motive of doing may remain shrouded in a mystery for the long time to come.

Meanwhile, the PPP disagreed with the findings of the Scotland Yard team, saying that it still believe she was killed by bullet. “The party is still looking at the Scotland Yard report, however, it is difficult to agree with its findings on the cause of death,” said Sherry Rehman, a senior official of the PPP. “We do believe that she was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” Ms Rehman added.