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Pakistan Puts Blame On Militant

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By LAURA KING, Los Angeles Times

Published: December 29, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - As slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest in her ancestral village Friday, the government of President Pervez Musharraf laid the blame for her assassination on a Taliban commander and said other politicians also were under threat.

The government cited intercepted telephone conversations in pointing the finger at militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed to operate in the borderlands near Afghanistan.

It also blamed him for an earlier attempt on Bhutto's life in October; after that bombing, Bhutto had said she believed rogue elements within the intelligence establishment or the security forces had colluded with Islamic militants in the attack.

In an apparent attempt to deflect anger at Musharraf, who has been accused of failing to provide Bhutto with adequate security against bombers, the government went on to make a surprising claim: that she was killed neither by gunshots nor shrapnel in Thursday's attack in Rawalpindi, but instead died of a skull fracture when she hit her head on her sport utility vehicle's open sunroof. Her supporters scoffed at the assertion.

Violence flared in several Pakistani cities, leaving at least 30 people dead during the first 24 hours after the former prime minister's death. The government deployed thousands of police, paramilitary troops and soldiers across the country, giving those in the most volatile areas shoot-to-kill orders against looters and rioters.

For many, the assassination of the country's best-known political figure was a cataclysmic event, a collectively experienced tragedy.

"It's like your Kennedy assassination," said college student Imran Ashfaq, his eyes reddened as he watched the TV news in a nearly deserted teahouse here in the capital. "I'll always remember this time."

Much of the country was virtually shut down after the government decreed three days of mourning and Bhutto's followers called for a general strike. In most cities and towns, streets were deserted and shops tightly shuttered; people stayed home from schools and offices.

Pakistani television stations played endless footage of Bhutto, showing old black-and-white photos of her as a gawky teen, a glamorous, reed-thin young woman, a dark-eyed mother cuddling her young children.

Banner headlines in many Pakistani newspapers were unabashedly emotional. "Cry the beloved country," read the headline in the English-language paper The News, its white-on-black type stained red as if with drops of blood. "Farewell Benazir."

In Bhutto's remote home village of Naudero, tens of thousands of weeping, chanting mourners lined the route taken by an ambulance bearing her simple wooden casket.

Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and three teenage children escorted the body to the family shrine for burial beside her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged nearly three decades ago by the military regime that had overthrown him.

Elections Still Set For Jan. 8

Bhutto's death threw Pakistan's political world into chaos less than two weeks before parliamentary elections that were to have shown the West that this precarious country was moving toward democracy.

Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the government did not plan to postpone the Jan. 8 elections, despite Bhutto's death and boycotts by other politicians.

The Bush administration has pushed for the elections as a way to signal that this vital U.S. ally in the war on terror was moving toward true democracy.

"We believe that if elections can proceed as scheduled, smoothly and safely, then we would certainly encourage that happening," U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. "I think regardless of whether they happen the 8th or some date shortly thereafter, what's important is that there is a certainty on the part of not only Pakistan's political leadership but the Pakistani people that there will be a date certain that they will be choosing their new government and new leadership."

'No Bullets ... Were Found In Her Body'

In addition to blaming Taliban leader Mehsud for Bhutto's death, Pakistan's Interior Ministry contradicted reports by witnesses and doctors that Bhutto had been shot and then cut down by a suicide bomber, saying she had been hit by neither bullets nor shrapnel.

"No bullets ... were found in her body," said Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema. She was fatally wounded when the percussion of the blast caused Bhutto, who had been standing up in her SUV to wave to supporters, hit her head on the sunroof's handle, he said.

Incredulous aides to Bhutto rejected the claim.

"We all saw what happened to her," said one senior associate.

Bhutto was almost unconscious when brought to the hospital, Cheema said. Bhutto's husband had not allowed an autopsy but doctors conducted an external postmortem and took X-rays. Islamic custom dictates that the body be buried as soon as possible.

A senior U.S. official in Washington said there was debate within the Bush administration over whether to press Musharraf to open the investigation to law enforcement officials from outside Pakistan, including the FBI.

As pressure grew for an independent inquiry, the government said two high-level investigations were being conducted: one headed by the senior judiciary and one by high-level police and intelligence officials.

Accused Also Linked To Al-Qaida

Violence was concentrated in Hyderabad and Karachi, both in Bhutto's home province of Sindh, where troops were sent into the streets after protesters furious over Bhutto's killing torched cars, buildings, railway cars and fast-food restaurants.

Unrest also hit Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan and a frequent flash point for fighting.

The Interior Ministry said the government accusation against militant leader Mehsud was based on an electronic intercept of an alleged telephone conversation between him and another person. Mehsud is a wanted Taliban commander based in the tribal area along the Afghanistan border. He is believed to have links to al-Qaida, and to have issued a previous threat against Bhutto.

Many of her supporters accuse Musharraf of at least indirect responsibility for Bhutto's death.

Before she was killed, the former leader had objected to what she said was insufficient security provided by the government, including a lack of jamming equipment meant to help forestall bombings with a remotely detonated device.

The government also disclosed that opposition leader Nawaz Sharif was under threat of attack.

Sharif, a former prime minister, has been holding mass rallies across the country without incident.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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