The’Proof’ That Al Qaeda Killed Her ; As Thousands Mourn Bhutto, Bugged Call Hails ‘Courage’ of Terror Gang

By Fiona Barton

A PHONE call from an Al Qaeda chief hailing his ‘brave boys’ was presented last night as proof the group murdered Benazir Bhutto.

The Pakistan Interior Ministry said intelligence officers had intercepted the message from Baitullah Mehsud passing on his congratulations to a cohort for ‘a spectacular job’.

They said it was ‘irrefutable’ evidence the terror group was behind the assassination that has plunged the country into bloody turmoil.

The dramatic claims came as hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of the 54-year-old former prime minister – and as the Pakistan government claimed she was not actually killed by the bullets or the bomb – but by the lever on her car’s sunroof.

The Interior Ministry said she had ducked down from a standing position in her open-top vehicle when she heard gunshots. Then the massive shockwave from the assassin’s follow-up suicide bomb threw her head back against the lever, fracturing her skull.

‘There was no bullet that hit her…

there was no shrapnel that hit her,’ said spokesman Javed Cheema.

Bhutto’s People’s Party hotly disputed ‘It is our first major victory’ the government version, calling it ‘a pack of lies’. They said her body bore at least two bullet holes and suggested the firing came from more than one source.

A government statement said that Bhutto’s husband had not allowed doctors to perform an autopsy before burial.

They did not say why he objected but, if true, it is possible the dispute over cause of death may never be settled.

In other developments: Forensic experts reconstructed the suicide bomber’s head in an attempt to identify him.

President Musharraf insisted the general election will go ahead next month.

At least 30 people died as violence continued nationwide.

The Foreign Office warned travellers against visiting Pakistan unless the journey was ‘essential’.

The Pakistani government released a lengthy transcript of the intercepted Al Qaeda conversation, which suggests three men were involved in the killing.

In it Mehsud tells his contact: ‘It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.’ The accomplice, Maulvi Sahib, replies: ‘Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.’ Cheema said Mehsud was also behind the attempt on Bhutto’s life in Karachi in October when a bomb killed 140 at a rally marking her return from exile.

He is regarded as the commander of pro-Taliban forces in the lawless Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, where Al Qaeda fighters are active.

Cheema’s words were bolstered by a statement from Mustafa Abu al- Yazid, Al Qaeda’s top commander in Afghanistan, who said the attack was ordered by

Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s right hand man.

The grim task of identifying the killer’s remains was being undertaken by Pakistan forensic teams helped by FBI experts.

‘We have retrieved a head and it has been reconstructed. We also found fingers and we’re carrying out DNA tests to make a comparison between the head and fingers,’ said Saud Aziz, police chief in Rawalpindi.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said his officers were also investigating alternative theories, including the possibility that a rogue element within Pakistan’s security services carried out the murder because they saw Bhutto as a threat to their power.

Graphic evidence of her popularity was on display at her funeral, as hundreds of thousands of mourners wept and beat their heads in an outpouring of raw grief.

The coffin was driven in an ambulance four miles through a sea of people to the spectacular tripledomed family mausoleum in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

Crowds threw petals and chanted: ‘As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto.’ Bhutto’s son Bilawal, 19, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari sobbed as they helped lift the coffin into a grave beside that of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister who was hanged in 1979.

Thousands of supporters then filed in to shovel dirt into the grave and pray with the couple’s three children, Bilawal, an Oxford University student, and daughters Bakhtawar, 17 and Aseefa, 14.

Prayers were said in mosques across Britain, where worshippers condemned the killing.

In Sindh province, Bhutto’s political heartland, at least 23 people, including three policemen, were killed in demonstrations.

A mob in Karachi looted and torched banks and left three police officers wounded.

About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked banks and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas.

The escalation of rioting brought a warning from the Foreign Office for travellers not to go to Pakistan unless it was essential amid fears that extremists could seize control of nuclear arms. The Pentagon issued reassurance last night saying that the country’s nuclear arsenal remained under the control of the military.

An American journalist claimed to have received an email two months ago from Bhutto expressing fears for her security and blaming President Musharraf.

CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer said she had insisted he could only reveal the contents in the event of her death..

(c) 2007 Daily Mail; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.