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New claims arise in Bhutto death

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry is now claiming assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto did not die from a bullet wound as first suspected.

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".

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