Bhutto DeadFollow

Supporters of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto have accused the Government of covering up her cause of death.

Ms Bhutto was killed as she left a campaign rally in Raiwilpindi on Thursday.

The Government says she accidentally hit her head as she tried to duck for cover after a suicide bomber attack, but her supporters say she was shot.

Video has been released showing someone waving a gun near the vehicle just moments before the explosion, but the interior ministry says the body had no gunshot or shrapnel wounds.

Senior members of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have dismissed the Government's version of events as "lies" and "nonsense".

Ms Bhutto's spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, was in the former prime minister's motorcade at the time of the gun and suicide attack and was then part of the party that prepared Ms Bhutto's body for the funeral.

Ms Rehman said she saw a bullet wound in Ms Bhutto's head as she bathed her body after her assassination.

"There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side," she said.

"We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood."

Ms Rehman has accused the Government of mounting a cover-up over Ms Bhutto's death.

She says the hospital was made to change its statement and it never gave a proper report on the cause of death.

"I believe the interior ministry is saying that she died from some concussion that may have taken place against the sunroof," she said.

"This [the Government explanation] is ridiculous, dangerous nonsense because it is a cover-up of what actually happened.

"To hear that Ms Bhutto fell from impact from a bump on the sunroof is absolutely rubbish, it's dangerous nonsense, because it implies that there was no assassination attempt when that has been show on all private television channels.

"She did not concuss her head against the sunroof."

Farooq Naik, Ms Bhutto's lawyer and a senior PPP official, said Ms Bhutto had a second bullet wound in the abdomen.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema blamed Al Qaeda for the bomb attack.

He said intelligence services had intercepted a call from Baitullah Mehsud, considered the group's top leader for Pakistan, congratulating a militant for Ms Bhutto's death.

However Maulana Omar, a spokesman for Mehsud, denied involvement in the attack and expressed grief over Ms Bhutto's death.

"This is a conspiracy of the Government, army and intelligence agencies," Omar said.

Mr Cheema said the Government would let Ms Bhutto's body be exhumed for inquiry if her party requested it.

He said the Government's account of her death was "absolute facts - nothing but facts".

*Along with most Feudal countries that suddenly got exposed to the modern west (with an unfortunate period of colonial conquest), they don't quite get democracy, do they?

Hey Smash - what's Hindi for 'grassy knoll'?

Aus wuld, oddly.

Scotland Yard to help in Bhutto probe
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that he had requested a team of investigators from Britain's Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation into the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"We decided to request a team from Scotland Yard to come. I sent the request to (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown, and he accepted the request," Musharraf said, adding that the British team would assist local investigators.

"We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it," Musharraf said in a nationally televised address.

Opposition officials have rejected the government's version of events surrounding Bhutto's killing in a suicide attack after a rally Thursday and demanded an international investigation.

Musharraf's nearly 30 minute speech was his first major address since Bhutto's slaying.

"This is a time for reconciliation and not for confrontation," he said.

"The nation has experienced a great tragedy. Benazir Bhutto has died in the hands of terrorists. I pray to God almighty to put the eternal soul of Benazir at peace," he said.

Following Bhutto's death, rioters rampaged through the streets for days, burning cars and shops and accusing the government of being behind her killing. The government has denied the charge and blamed al-Qaida linked militants for her death.

Musharraf blamed "many miscreants and some political elements" of taking advantage of the tragedy to loot and plunder, adding that the government would deal sternly with anyone who disrupts law and order.

Musharraf also said he had wanted to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled on Jan. 8, but he deferred to the decision of the election commission earlier in the day to postpone them for six weeks due to the violence.

"The election commission has taken a timely and correct decision," he said. "We will hold free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections."

He also reached out to Bhutto's supporters, saying that she worked to promote democracy and end terrorism.

"My mission is also the same," he said.

"We need to fight terrorism with full force, and I think that if we don't succeed in the fight against terrorism, the future of Pakistan will be dark," he said. "I appeal to the people and the nation, and to the media to support the government and the security agencies."

Aha! I see what you did there. It only took....five days.

This man is Smasharoo... writer of jokes.
In a few moments, he will have written the funniest joke in the world... and, as a consequence, he will die... laughing.