A four-member police team is investigating the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto with the help of security agencies. A judicial team is also investigating. Former Prime Minister Benazir was killed in a gun and bomb attack as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
Authorities say three shots were fired moments before a suicide bomber set off explosives. Following are main points of the investigation into her assassination and the controversy about exactly how she was killed and who might be responsible:
1. The government says an al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militant, Baitullah Mehsud, was behind her assassination although a spokesman for the wanted militant, who is based on the Afghan border, denied involvement.
Pakistan People's Party have rejected the government's contention al Qaeda was responsible, saying authorities were trying to cover up their failure to provide security. They vaguely suggest other unidentified Benazir's enemies were responsible.
2. The government, citing a medical report, has said Benazir was killed when the force of the blast smashed her head into a lever on the sunroof of her bullet-proof vehicle as she ducked down when shots were fired. PPP dismisses that as "ludicrous," saying, she was killed by a bullet in the head.
3. Investigators reconstructed a mangled human head found at the scene of the attack, apparently that of the suicide bomber, as well as severed fingers. DNA tests were being done to see if the head and fingers belonged to the same person but police have not commented further.
4. Dawn News Television broadcast grainy still pictures of what it said appeared to be two men who attacked and killed Benazir. One was a clean-cut young man wearing sun glasses, a white shirt and dark waist coat.
Behind him stood a man with a white shawl over his head, who Dawn said was believed to be the bomber. Two other photographs showed the clean-cut man pointing a pistol at Bhutto. Government officials have declined to say how many attackers they think were involved.
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