There are so many "conflicting" stories that are swirling around the assassination yesterday of Benazir Bhutto that it is little wonder that Pakistan is experiencing widespread unrest.
Just a sampling:
-Benazir Bhutto died from hitting her car's sunroof; no bullet or shrapnel found in her, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry says.
[breaking news headline, CNN.com]
-Bhutto was killed after a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally, police and witnesses said. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, but Dr. Mussadiq Khan, a surgeon who treated her, said Friday that she died from shrapnel that hit her on the right side of the skull.
Bhutto had no heart beat or pulse when she arrived at the hospital and doctors failed to resuscitate her, he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said he saw the medical report, and it, too, said she died from a shrapnel wound and was not shot. "No bullet was found in her body," he said.
Soomro, the prime minister, told the Cabinet on Friday that Bhutto's husband did not allow an autopsy, according to a government statement.
[From the Huffington Post]
-It was initially reported that Bhutto, 54, was killed by the bullets of an assassin who blew himself up after firing the shots following a public rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
But government officials said Friday that a medical report confirmed that Bhutto was killed by shrapnel from the blast -- from which at least 28 more people died and at least 100 were wounded.
The shrapnel hit the right side of her skull, Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said. The bomber did shoot at Bhutto with a pistol, but she had no bullet injury.
[News story, CNN.com]
-Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose funeral was held today, died from injuries she suffered when hitting her vehicle's sunroof, it has been claimed.
Interior Ministry spokesman said no bullets or shrapnel were found in her body.
It had previously been announced Ms Bhutto died as a result of being hit in the neck and chest by shots fired by an assassin.
The Ministry has also blamed al Qaeda and the Taliban for the 54-year-old's death..
It said its agents had intercepted an al Qaeda phone call about the killing.
It says it also has evidence the international terror group is trying to "destabilise" Pakistan.
[Breaking News from Sky News]
You're going to have to excuse me if I don't believe a Goddamned thing about what happened--it's just not possible for so many people to get something like this so completely and utterly wrong without there being, at least at some level, a behind-the-scenes conspiracy being run by incompetents who can't get their stories straight.
UPDATE: Josh Marshall has also picked up on this, and is asking for medical people to weigh in. Given that Bhutto was quickly buried without autopsy (for religious reasons, most likely), I don't know if it is possible to figure anything out from the scant evidence that exists.
I do know one thing--I'm not buying any of the bullshit being spewed by the Pakistani government, and I doubt anyone is ever going to be able to figure out what really happened.
UPDATE 2: Bhutto associate calls out Pakistani regime--
Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Miss Bhutto had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof's lever as she tried to shelter inside the car.
"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Mr Cheema said.
But the explanation was ridiculed by Farooq Naik, Miss Bhutto's top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People's Party.
"It is baseless. It is a pack of lies," he said.
"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. It was a serious security lapse."
How about this scenario--Bhutto was pronounced dead at the hospital because she had been killed in the ambulance on the way there by a severe blow to the head...?
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