Shows Bhutto collapsing into her armoured-vehicle before the suicide blast

Islamabad, December 30:

A Pakistani television station released footage early today claiming that opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was shot dead by an assassin before an accomplice detonated a suicide bomb, contrary to official government claims.

The new, exclusive images from the Pakistani-based DawnNews TV show a young gunman, wearing sunglasses and dressed in a light-brown sports jacket, firing at Bhutto as she stood atop the sunroof of her white security Range Rover following a poll campaign rally in Rawalpindi.

The footage clearly shows Bhutto collapsing into her armoured-vehicle before the suicide blast, contradicting official government claims that she recoiled only after the blast and cracked her skull on the sunroof. The government’s official version, which included only partial footage of the attack, has been met with widespread derision. Bhutto’s senior aides inside the vehicle are adamant that she was shot.

Yesterday night, Pakistan Interior Ministry officials again had insisted that Bhutto died after cracking her skull off a lever of the vehicle’s sunroof following recoil from the bomb blast.

Meanwhile, thousands today chanted anti-government slogans at the family home of Benazir Bhutto.

In Karachi, dozens placed garlanded pictures of Bhutto outside her house in the southern port city, where party officials made special arrangements for public mourning prayers.

Meanwhile, two suspected suicide bombers died today when they prematurely detonated their bomb near the residence of a senior leader of the ruling party in eastern Pakistan, police said. The men were on a motorcycle and were not far away from the residence of Ijazul Haq, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, in the city of Bahawalnagar.

Campaigning suspended:

ISLAMABAD: The party backing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has suspended campaigning for January 8 elections, a spokesman said on Sunday, adding that a 12-week delay in the vote was “realistic”. Tariq Azim, the country’s former deputy information minister, said conditions had become too difficult because of unrest over the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. — AFP