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ISLAMABAD, Feb 8 (AFP) - British detectives said Friday that Benazir Bhutto was killed by the force of a suicide bomb and not gunfire, backing the Pakistani government’s version of how the opposition leader was assassinated. Scotland Yard said a lone attacker shot at Benazir as she waved to supporters at an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 — but he missed and then detonated explosives which caused her head to fatally smash against her car.

“In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device,” said the summary of the 70-page report delivered to Pakistani authorities earlier in the day. “The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury,” added the summary, signed by British Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne.

The British team of forensics and other experts spent two and a half weeks in Pakistan in January at the invitation of President Pervez Musharraf. The British team said its task was complicated by the “lack of an extended and detailed search of the crime scene, the absence of an autopsy, and the absence of recognised body recovery and victim identification processes.” But it added that there was sufficient evidence to draw “reliable conclusions”, including X-rays checked against Benazir’s dental records and video footage taken by witnesses. “The only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb-blast,” it quoted British government pathologist Nathaniel Cary as saying.

Source dawn.com