Islamabad - British investigators have concluded that
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died after cracking her
skull on the hatch of her vehicle during a December 27 attack,
confirming government claims that she was not shot, officials said
Friday.
An investigation team from Britain's Scotland Yard submitted a
much-anticipated preliminary report on the assassination to Bhutto's
family and the government Friday morning.
'Benazir Bhutto died of a severe head injury as a consequence of
the bomb blast,' Abdul Majeed, head of the Pakistani police
investigation team, said as he read the executive summary of the
Scotland Yard report during a televised press conference.
'Such an explosion would generate more force than necessary to
provoke the consequences of the case,' he said, adding that the blast
velocity was between 6,000 and 9,000 metres per second.
He said the British team concluded that the attacker had missed
Bhutto with three shots from a handgun at close range before
detonating the bomb, which also killed 22 people.
Bhutto's family and aides who were with her in the vehicle claim
she was shot in the head and chest in the attack. The two-time prime
minister was buried the next day, following Muslim tradition, and no
autopsy was performed, further fueling the controversy.
According to the British report, the only injury to Bhutto was
major trauma to the right side of her head, which investigators ruled
out as being from a gunshot wound.
The report concluded the injury was caused by the side of the
armour-plated escape hatch - for weeks government officials referred
to it as a sunroof - as Bhutto fell back into the vehicle after the
blast.
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