OK, so now the Pakistani government, led by one President Pervez Musharraf, says that Bhutto wasn't shot, but rather fractured her skull on the lever of her card sunroof as she dived back inside for cover.
Hmmm. Somehow I am finding it very difficult to trust Musharraf on anything these days. And there will be no autopsy, apparently at her husbands request? Double hmmm.
Witnesses said they first heard four or five gunshots as Ms Bhutto appeared from the sun-roof of her white bullet-proof four-wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser to wave to her followers chanting “jiay Bhutto (long live Bhutto) outside the northern gate of the park, and then saw her disappearing into the vehicle before a big explosion damaged the jeep rear and turned the scene into a killing ground. Hardly anybody at the scene seemed to know at the time she had been hit by bullets and driven to the Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead at an operation theatre table.
Both security officials and PPP members said they had heard the gunshots but that Ms Bhutto was safe as reporters witnessed ambulances lifting the dead and wounded from a blood-splattered portion of Liaquat Road outside the park gate that was reserved on the day for the entry and exit of the PPP leader and her close associates.
But the government says she wasn't shot, seemingly in line with the report of security officials on scene, as mentioned above. If she was safe in the Land Cruiser when the bomb blew, what killed her? The Land Cruiser survived the blast, with only flat tires, apparently, because it rushed her to the hospital. Was she killed when someone inside the 4x4 yanked her down into the vehicle? Or was it something else entirely?
Hot Air quotes a NY Sun piece:
The attack yesterday at Rawalpindi bore the hallmarks of a sophisticated military operation. At first, Bhutto’s rally was hit by a suicide bomb that turned out to be a decoy. According to press reports and a situation report of the incident relayed to The New York Sun by an American intelligence officer, Bhutto’s armored limousine was shot by multiple snipers whose armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle, hitting the former premier five times in the head, chest, and neck. Two of the snipers then detonated themselves shortly after the shooting, according to the situation report, while being pursued by local police.
I have to assume that her vehicle was armored - hell, it must have been - and, if that was the case, it would certainly have run flat tires, which would explain both how the vehicle survived the blast and how she was then driven to the hospital in it. It would be interesting to know more about that Land Cruiser.
Also note that The NY Sun report says that there was yet another team waiting at the hospital for her in case she survived the initial attack. That sounds more like a coordinated effort by the government/military than an attack by radical elements. Either way, Pakistan's military and government are certainly infiltrated to the highest levels.
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