Scotland Yard says blast, not gunshot, killed Bhutto

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Scotland Yard said in a report released Friday that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot — findings that support the Pakistani government's version of the events.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party immediately rejected the British conclusion and repeated its demand for a U.N. investigation.

The party says Bhutto was shot and suspects a government cover-up because Bhutto had accused political allies of President Pervez Musharraf of plotting to kill her.

The British probe also found that a single attacker both fired the shots at Bhutto and detonated the blast by blowing himself up moments later.

The death of the former prime minister sparked violent unrest across the country and forced a six-week delay in parliamentary elections, now set for Feb. 18. The continuing dispute over exactly how she died will do little to ease Pakistan's political turmoil.

Musharraf has rejected the call for a U.N. probe but invited Scotland Yard to help establish the cause of death. After a two-and-a-half week investigation, their findings were released Friday in a summarized report issued by the British High Commission in Islamabad.

British Home Office pathologist Dr. Nathaniel Cary was quoted in a report as saying that "the only tenable cause" for Bhutto's fatal head injury was the impact of the blast that went off as she waved to supporters from the hatch of her vehicle after an election rally.

"In my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb-blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle," Cary said in the report.

Pakistan's government announced a similar conclusion shortly after Bhutto's killing, which took place in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. It says the attack was orchestrated by a top Taliban militant commander with links to al-Qaida, Baitullah Mehsud.

There was widespread public skepticism over the government's conclusion as the bomb site was hosed down within hours of the attack and the findings were announced with haste.

"We disagree with the finding on the cause of the death," said Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for the Pakistan Peoples Party, who escorted Bhutto to hospital after the Dec. 27 attack. "She died from a bullet injury. This was and is our position."