Investigation Al-Qaida to Blame for Death, Government Says Accusations Fly As Bhutto Laid to Rest

By MUNIR AHMED

By Munir Ahmed

The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Pakistan’s government asserted Friday that al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and it offered the transcript from a phone tap as proof. Hundreds of thousands mobbed her funeral as the army tried to quell rioting across the nation that left 27 dead.

President Pervez Musharraf’s government also said Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed. Instead, the government said, her skull was shattered by the force of a suicide bomb blast that slammed her against a lever in her car’s sunroof.

The new explanations come as the death of Bhutto, Musharraf’s most powerful political foe, triggers further turmoil in this nuclear-armed nation already plagued by a growing threat from Islamic militants.

Pentagon officials said Friday, however, that they have seen nothing to give them any worries about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

The Pakistani government said it would hunt down those responsible for Bhutto’s death in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are thought to be hiding.

“They will definitely be brought to justice,” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

The government released a transcript Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and another militant.

“It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her,” Mehsud said, according to the transcript. The government did not release an audiotape.

Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was behind most other recent terror attacks in Pakistan, including the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people.

Mehsud is thought to be the commander of pro-Taliban forces in the tribal region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida fighters are also active.

This fall, he was quoted in a Pakistani newspaper as saying that he would welcome Bhutto’s return from exile with suicide bombers. Mehsud later denied that.

Cheema announced the formation of two inquiries into Bhutto’s death, one to be carried out by a high court judge and another by security forces. Bhutto was assassinated Thursday evening after a rally in Rawalpindi.

On Thursday, authorities had said Bhutto died of bullet wounds fired by a man who then blew himself up. A surgeon who treated her, however, said Friday that she died of the impact of shrapnel on her skull.

Later Friday, Cheema said those accounts were mistaken. He said all three shots missed her as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her vehicle, which was bullet- and bomb-resistant.

He also denied that shrapnel caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and that the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull. The government released a photograph showing blood on the lever.

Denying charges the government failed to give her adequate security protection, Cheema said it was Bhutto who made herself vulnerable and pointed out that the other passengers in Bhutto’s vehicle were fine.

Bhutto was buried without an autopsy, and the scene of the attack was almost immediately hosed down, before forensic examination could be carried out. As a result, the exact circumstances of Bhutto’s death are likely to remain a mystery.

Desperate to quell the rioting, the government sent troops into the streets of Hyderabad, Karachi and other areas in Sindh province.

Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the government had no immediate plans to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections despite the violence and the decision by Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader, to boycott the poll.

The United States, which sees Pakistan as a crucial ally in the war on terror, was counting on Musharraf to proceed with the vote in the hope it will cement steps toward restoring democracy after the six-week state of emergency he declared last month.

Keeping the election on track was the biggest immediate concern in sustaining an American policy of promoting stability, moderation and democracy in Pakistan, U.S. officials said Friday.

Bhutto’s death left her populist party without a clear successor. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was freed in December 2004 after eight years in detention on graft charges, is one contender to head the party, though he lacks the cachet a blood relative would have.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.

Swiss inquiry closed

Swiss authorities have closed an investigation into Benazir Bhutto for alleged money laundering, but a parallel probe into her husband’s activities continues, her lawyer said Friday.

A three-year investigation into allegations that Bhutto used Swiss banks to launder millions of dollars in kickbacks has been closed, lawyer Alec Reymond said Friday – charges Bhutto denied. Reymond said proceedings would continue against Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and another unnamed individual, though. Swiss authorities have closed an investigation into the late Benazir Bhutto for alleged money laundering but a parallel probe into her husband’s activities continues, her lawyer said Friday.

A three-year investigation into allegations that Bhutto used Swiss banks to launder millions of dollars in kickbacks has been closed, lawyer Alec Reymond said Friday – charges Bhutto denied. Reymond said proceedings would continue against Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and another unnamed individual.

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