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Shots at Benazir fired from a .30 gun: report

ISLAMABAD: Forensic investigations into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto have confirmed that shots were fired at her from a .30 bore pistol, one of two firearms recovered from the site of the attack on her in Rawalpindi.

Dawn News television reported that a forensics laboratory in Lahore confirmed to Scotland Yard detectives assisting in the investigation that two empties and a misfired bullet recovered from the spot matched the .30 bore pistol that was found outside Liaquat Bagh, where Benazir was killed as she was leaving after addressing an election rally on December 27.

The other weapon found at the site was 9 mm pistol but no empties matching it were found at the spot. The recovery of two weapons has opened up the possibility that two gunmen were present, in addition to a suicide bomber, and that shots may well have been fired at Benazir from the right side of her vehicle, diplomatic sources said. It is also possible that one of the two was also the suicide bomber.

Doctors who examined her body have said that she sustained only one wound, on the right side of the head, while PPP leaders who saw the body have spoken of more than one wound, and on both sides, as well as the neck.

The amateur video footage from the scene shows a man firing at her from the left side, with what media analysts have said appeared to be a 9 mm pistol. But the shots fired by him could not have hit her on the right side of the head.

Three more detectives joined the Scotland Yard team in Pakistan on Friday, while some others in the team are said to have flown back home. Three detectives arrived on Wednesday.

The team has set up a temporary office at the Rawalpindi Police Lines, and spent six hours on Thursday questioning local police officers who were involved in the security arrangements for the rally.

The official news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the British detectives had also asked for a complete record of investigations and police findings on suicide bomb attacks that have taken place in Pakistan over the last three year in order to draw comparisons with the attack on Benazir.

In Lahore, meanwhile, police have released the sketch of the suicide bomber who blew himself up killing 23 persons and left over 60 wounded. As many as 20 of the dead were policemen deployed outside the Lahore High Court, where the attack took place, for a anti-government march by lawyers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told Pakistan Television that banned jihadi groups could be behind the wave of suicide bombings in the country.

“Extremist groups, loose groups, tribal miscreants, banned Jehadi groups and anti-state elements may be involved in these attacks in the country,” Brig (retd.) Cheema said. He counted 67 terrorist and suicide attacks since the beginning of 2007 including the latest one in Lahore.

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