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Video, report raise doubts over Bhutto's cause of death

A newly released video of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination and an inconclusive medical report raised new doubts yesterday about the official explanation of her death and was likely to intensify calls for an independent, international investigation.

The footage, obtained by Britain's Channel 4 TV, showed a man firing a pistol at Bhutto from just a few meters away as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her armored vehicle after a rally on Thursday. Her hair and shawl then moved upward and she fell into the vehicle just before an explosion -- apparently detonated by a second man -- rocked the car.

GUNSHOT

Bhutto's aides, including one who rushed her to the hospital, said they were certain she was shot. She was buried on Friday without an autopsy.

The government, citing a report from doctors at the hospital where she died, said she was not hit by any of the bullets, but was killed when the concussive force of the blast slammed her head into a lever on the vehicle's sunroof.

However, a copy of the medical report sent to reporters by a prominent lawyer who is a board member of the hospital, said the doctors had made no determination about whether she was shot or not.

It gave the cause of death as "open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest."

The report, signed by seven doctors at the hospital, said that when Bhutto was brought in, she had no pulse and was not breathing. Blood trickled from a wound on the right side of her head and whitish material that appeared to be brain matter was visible. Her clothes were soaked with blood. The medical team worked for 41 minutes to try to resuscitate her before declaring her dead.

The report said her head wound was 5cm by 3cm. No surrounding wounds or blackening were seen.

"No foreign body was felt in the wound. Wound was not further explored," it said.

The report was released by prominent opposition lawyer Athar Minallah, who is a member of the board that oversees Rawalpindi General Hospital.

He said that the doctors had called for an autopsy to definitively determine the cause of death, but that Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz had refused.

"The wound might appear to be a bullet wound, but without an autopsy no doctor would ever be able to give a conclusive opinion that it was or it wasn't a bullet wound," Minallah said. "Without an autopsy there can be no investigation at all."

However, Aziz denied that he refused to authorize an autopsy.

"I have not told anyone about stopping the post mortem," he said. "It is a legal requirement, but again it is dependent upon the legal heirs of the deceased."

ELECTIONS

Meanwhile, electoral officials said they would decide today whether to go ahead with a January poll, with up to a two-month delay widely expected.

Sporadic violence flared again yesterday, with protesters firing into the air in the southern city of Hyderabad and throwing stones at police and shops.

Storefronts were damaged in the nearby town of Nawabshah, where Bhutto's widower hails from.

A former ruling party official said the election was likely to be delayed for up to two months.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) vowed to take part, and the opposition, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, would too, chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said.

"We don't want any delay," said PPP spokeswoman Farzana Raja, saying that a postponement would help the party's opponents.
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