Benazir aides allege cover up by Pakistan govt

Karachi: A top aide who helped bathe Benazir Bhutto's body after her death said it was clear that the former Pakistani prime minister suffered bullet wounds to her head, contrary to a government report that she died because she hit her head on a sunroof lever.

Pakistan People's Party information secretary Sherry Rehman, who was riding in the car behind Benazir's when it was attacked, called the government's conclusion that Benazir was not shot "the most bizarre, dangerous nonsense."

"It's beginning to look like a cover up to me," Rehman said in a CNN interview.

Rehman said Benazir was hemorrhaging on the way to the hospital and that the two cars used to get her there were blood-soaked.

"There were clear bullet injuries to her head," said Rehman. "When we bathed her we saw that."

On Thursday, hours after Benazir's death, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said she died from a gunshot wound to the neck, with the gunman firing as Benazir stood through the open sunroof of her vehicle as she left a rally in Rawalpindi.

The gunman then blew himself up, killing 23 others as well, officials said.

Video of the incident shows a man shooting a handgun three times toward Benazir's car before the blast. The account was consistent with statements to The Associated Press from doctors who pronounced Benazir dead at a hospital.

But on Friday, the Interior Ministry said Benazir was killed by shrapnel from the explosion. Then, hours later, the ministry said she died from a skull fracture suffered when she either fell or ducked into the car as a result of the shots or the explosion and crashed her head into a sunroof latch.

"The government comes up with the most bizarre, dangerous nonsense and it indicates that they are abdicating themselves of all responsibility by saying that she may have knocked her head or concussed her head against one of the levers on the sunroof," Rehman said.

Dr Mussadiq Khan of Rawalpindi General Hospital, who treated Benazir before she was pronounced dead, said she had a large wound on the side of her head consistent with striking or being struck by "something big, with a lot of speed."