‘Bhutto killed by bomb, not by bullet’

PAKISTAN- British detectives probing the death of Benazir Bhutto are to reveal Friday that she was killed by the force of a suicide blast and not an assassin’s bullet, the New York Times reported.

The paper, quoting officials briefed on the inquiry, said Scotland Yard investigators had backed up the Pakistani government’s explanation of how the opposition leader died at an election rally on December 27.

Bhutto’s family and party dismiss the government account that the explosion caused her to smash her head into the sunroof of her car in the attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, and insist they saw bullet wounds on her head.

The official release of the British team’s findings is not scheduled until 1:00 pm (0800 GMT), officials said. Pakistani and British officials said they had no comment on the New York Times report.

The Times said the British team had also found that a lone gunman a man wearing sunglasses and a waistcoat whose image was captured in several photographs taken at the time also caused the explosion.

It said it was not clear how the investigators had reached their conclusion when the scene of the attack was hosed down shortly afterwards and there had been no autopsy on Bhutto’s body. Islamabad, Friday, AFP