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Title: Militants, PPP punch holes in Pak govt story on Bhutto death
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Published: Dec 29, 2007
Author: http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/stor
Post Date: 2007-12-29 20:09:41 by tom007
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Views: 52
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Militants, PPP punch holes in Pak govt story on Bhutto death Agencies Posted online: Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email Islamabad, DECEMBER 29:An aide of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and militant commander Baitullah Mehsud’s spokesman punched holes in the Pakistani government claim that the Pakistan People’s Party leader did not die of bullet injuries and that she was killed by Islamic militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban. Advertisment Related Stories Pak channel airs photos of two men involved in Bhutto’s assassinationIn fear of flames, Lahore lives indoorsDeal firmly with rioters: Musharraf to forcesBhutto supporter shot dead, arson continuesShe has left instructions about PPP’s future: Zardari Dismissing as “absolutely nonsense” the government version, Sherry Rehman, a close associate of Bhutto, said: “There was a bullet wound in the back of her head and it (the bullet) was (powerful) enough to come out from the other side.” The Pak Interior Ministry had said that Bhutto had died as a result of fracture in her skull she suffered when she hit her head against a metal lever on the sun-roof of her bulletproof vehicle. Rehman, who was part of the group of women that bathed Bhutto’s body before her burial, said: “She was even bleeding while we were bathing her for the burial.” Ruling out a probe by international bodies into the assassination of Bhutto, the Pakistan government on Saturday offered to exhume her body to conduct an autopsy to settle the controversy. “If there is any doubt, if Sherry Rehman says she has seen the bullet wound, her (Bhutto’s) body can be exhumed and a post-mortem (can be done),” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference. Taliban too claimed that they had no link to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, dismissing government claims that a leader of pro-Taliban forces in Pakistan orchestrated the suicide attack. Bhutto’s aides also said they doubted that militant commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack. Pak authorities yesterday released telephone intercepts to show that Mehsud was behind the attack. “It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her,” Mehsud said in the transcript of a purported conversation released by the Pakistani Interior Ministry. But a spokesman for Mehsud, Maulana Mohammed Umer, denied that the militant was involved in the attack and dismissed the allegations as “government propaganda.” “We strongly deny it. Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto,” he said in a telephone call he made to the Associated Press from the tribal region of South Waziristan. “The fact is that we are only against America, and we don’t consider political leaders of Pakistan our enemy,” he said, adding he was speaking on instructions from Mehsud. Mehsud heads Tehrik-i-Taliban, a newly formed coalition of Islamic militants committed to waging holy war against the government. “The story that al-Qaeda or Baitullah Mehsud did it appears to us to be a planted story, an incorrect story, because they want to divert the attention,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s party. Pak EC to meet tomorrow • Pakistan’s Election Commission on Saturday indicated that it may delay the next month’s general elections. The Commission will hold an emergency meeting on Monday during which it is expected to decide whether to go ahead with the planned elections on January 8. Its offices in nine districts of the southern Sindh province were set on fire and all records, electoral rolls, ballot boxes and voting screens had been reduced to ashes. Polls: PPP decision today • Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party called a meeting Sunday to decide whether to participate in the vote. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, told the BBC that their son would read a message left by Bhutto and addressed to the party in the event of her death.
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Who would benefit from Al-Qaeda being named as the terrist organization?
"Satan / Cheney in "08" “The story that al-Qaeda or Baitullah Mehsud did it appears to us to be a planted story, an incorrect story, because they want to divert the attention,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s party.
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