ISLAMABAD (AFP) — The party of murdered Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Sunday that President Pervez Musharraf's admission she may have been killed by a gunman underscored the need for a UN probe.
In an interview with the US television network CBS, Musharraf admitted for the first time that Bhutto could have been shot.
She died in a gun and suicide bomb attack as she left a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi on December 27. Her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has insisted ever since that she was shot.
Musharraf's comments, however, contradict the interior ministry's official finding that the gunman missed his target and Bhutto died from bashing her head against the car's sunroof as she ducked for cover.
The president told the CBS programme "60 Minutes," in an interview to be broadcast Sunday, that a gunshot could have been the cause of Bhutto's fatal injuries after all.
Asked if Bhutto might have been shot, he answered: "Yes, absolutely, yes. Possibility."
PPP supporters, many of whom believe the authorities know more than they are saying about the murder of the head of Pakistan's most powerful political dynasty, were furious at the about-turn.
"The regime is constantly changing its position and that reinforces doubts and suspicions and lends credence to demands by the PPP for an independent inquiry under UN auspices," party spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.
Musharraf has invited Scotland Yard to help investigate the murder but has ruled out PPP demands for a UN-led probe.
Video footage of the attack shows a gunman firing several rounds at Bhutto from a pistol at close range as she waved to supporters from the roof of her car after a political rally.
None of the images clearly show her being hit, although from one angle her headscarf appears to flick out. Seconds after the gunman opened fire a suicide bomber detonated a device near Bhutto's car.
The government quickly blamed a Pakistani Islamist linked to Al-Qaeda but he has denied any role in the attack.
"I feel that there is a skeleton in the cupboard of the government and that's why they have been changing their stance," another senior PPP leader, Babar Awan, said.
"From day one we have been saying that she was shot. It was a conspiracy, a plan executed -- we have absolutely no doubts about it."
Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema, who announced the government's initial findings that Bhutto had not been shot, told AFP: "Whatever the president has said, it must have been right. I cannot add anything to it. The investigations are continuing now and when these are concluded we will share the findings with the public."
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999 and only resigned from the army at the end of November, also told CBS according to advance extracts that Bhutto only had herself to blame for her death.
"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone. Nobody else. Responsibility is hers," he said.
On Sunday, Islamabad's envoy to the United States followed Musharraf's comments by saying Bhutto had put herself in harm's way.
"If she had not come out of the protected, armoured vehicle, maybe we would have seen her smiling face again today," Mahmoud Ali Durrani told CNN television.
Bhutto supporters erupted in protests after her death, blaming the government for failing to protect her despite requests for tighter security after a suicide bomber targeted her in October.
The murder sparked a wave of deadly unrest and forced the postponement to February 18 of general elections, seen as a crucial step toward democracy after eight years of military-led rule.
Scotland Yard anti-terrorism investigators examined Bhutto's car for evidence on Sunday, a Pakistani security official said, after visiting the crime scene the day before.
Meanwhile the New York Times reported that in the wake of Bhutto's assassination the White House was considering approving military operations inside Pakistan to target Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.
Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad reacted angrily to the report.
"It is not up to the US administration, it is Pakistan's government who is responsible for this country," he said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq late Sunday described the New York Times report as "speculative" but said any suggestion of US forces on its territory was "unacceptable".
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