David Edwards and Katie Baker
On Sunday, UK's Channel 4 news broadcasted a new video of the Bhutto assassination which they say "provides the most conclusive evidence yet that Benazir Bhutto was shot."
Although the Pakistani government officially claims that Bhutto died from hitting her head on the sunroof as she ducked into her car, evidence in the video drastically contradicts that account.
The video shows a large crowd swarming around Bhutto's car. A clean-shaven man in sunglasses is visibly watching, concealing a gun; behind him stands the suspected suicide bomber dressed in white. As the video rolls, the man in sunglasses moves closer to Bhutto's car and fires three shots. Directly after, the suicide bomber detonates his device and chaos ensues.Reporter Jonathan Rugman points out how, as the gunman fires, Bhutto's hair is lifted and her shawl seems to rise as she falls inside her car.
"These images ... apparently [contradict] the official version of events," Rugman asserts.
"As more such images come to light," he says, "they will fuel the anger of protesters both here at the scene of the crime and around the country who feel that they've been lied to by the government and that there's been a deliberate coverup of what amounts to a massive security failure to protect this country's best known politician."
Authorities initially said that Bhutto died from bullet wounds, and a surgeon who treated her said the impact from shrapnel on her skull killed her. But, Rugman points out, no blood was found on the bulletproof car -- and, every other passenger in the car survived. The video clearly shows three policeman to the left of the car, doing nothing to hold back the crowd. Was the government trying to cover-up a security lapse? Those close to the president say that was not the case.
"We do things here [quite differently]," says Senator Tarif Azeem, a friend of President Musharraf, citing Bhutto's want to "be amongst the crowd" as the reason why she stood through the sunroof without much security around her.
Officials have rejected calls for independent foreign inquiry, although they have offered to exhume her body if requested. According to Rugman, the government's actions suggest they may be hiding something.
"[The truth] really matters in a country where scores of people have died in protests against Mrs. Bhutto's death and indeed against the circumstances of Mrs. Bhutto's death," Rugman says, adding that the "great fear" in Pakistan is that the assassination will go unsolved.
This video is from Channel 4 News, broadcast on December 30, 2007.
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