Serious questions are being raised over Pakistan government's theory on Benazir Bhutto's assassination. While earlier reports indicated that Benazir Bhutto died of bullet wounds, the Pakistan government hours later denied those reports with Pakistani interior ministry spokesperson Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said yesterday that "There should be no ambiguity about Benazir's death - there were bullet wounds...It was a jolt after her head hit the vehicle lever."
However a top aide to the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has rejected the government's explanation of her death as a "pack of lies".
Farooq Naik, Ms Bhutto's top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People's Party, says that the government's claims that Bhutto was not hit by any bullets is completely baseless.
He says:
"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. Bhutto's personal secretary Naheed Khan and party official Makhdoom Amin Fahim were in the car and they saw what happened.... they (government) are turning it into a joke with such claims.'"
I bathed her body, saw the bullet wound
A close aide to Benazir Bhutto said today she saw a bullet wound in the Pakistani opposition
leader's head when she bathed her body after her assassination.
Butto's spokeswoman Sherry Rehman, who said she was in the former premier's motorcade at the time of the gun and suicide attack, rejected government claims that the death was caused when Bhutto's head hit her sunroof.
"I was actually part of the party which bathed her body before the funeral," said Rehman, who added that her car was used to transport Bhutto to hospital.
"There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side. We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood," she told AFP.
Rehman accused the government of mounting a cover-up over Bhutto's death.
"The hospital was made to change its statement. They never gave a proper report," she said.
"I believe the interior ministry is saying that she died from some concussion that may have taken place against the sunroof.
"This is ridiculous, dangerous nonsense because it is a cover-up of what actually happened."
Benazir raised questions on government link
The question is who is Baitullah Mehsud, the al Qaeda commander the Pakistan government is blaming the assassination on.
Benazir Bhutto, before returning to Pakistan had mentioned that she was receiving threats from him, even indictaing that he had strong links with the Pakistani government.
She said:
"I am not worried about Baitullah Masood. I am worried about the threat within the government. People like Baitullah Masood are just pawns. It is those forces behind him that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country."
"I did not kill her"
Meanwhile Mehsud accused by the Pakistani government on Friday (December 28) of masterminding Bhutto's assasination has completely denied any involvement.
"I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Mehsud's spokesman Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location.