Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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What kind of stupid nonsense is this…

The Pakistani government has clearly reached the level of total buffoonery and utter stupidity

After the latest video clearly showing that Benazir Bhutto was shot to death, the jokers in Islamabad are now retracting their nonsensical theory of Bhutto hitting her head and then dying…

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14582844

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination IANS
Pakistan retracts ‘lever killed Bhutto’ theory
Tuesday, 01 January , 2008, 14:00

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has retracted its contention that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto died after striking her head against the sunroof lever of her SUV and has “apologised” for floating the theory.

“The caretaker government of Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro on Monday apologised for the highly provocative comment made by the Interior Ministry spokesman that Bhutto died because she hit the lever of her bullet-proof Land Cruiser on the fateful (Dec 27) evening,” The News reported on Tuesday.

At a briefing for newspaper editors from all over the country, Interior Minister Lt Gen. (retd) Hamid Nawaz asked the media and the people to “forgive and ignore” the comment by Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Cheema.

Cheema’s comment caused a huge uproar as private TV channels obtained footage showing the assassin pointing and firing a gun at Bhutto. She is then shown collapsing into the vehicle. It is only later that a suicide bomber blows up at the site in Rawalpindi, causing mayhem and killing at least 20 people.

“Editor after editor lambasted the government for its non-serious attitude towards the tragedy, specially the statement that Bhutto had died by hitting the lever and not by a bullet or shrapnel,” the newspaper said.

Soomro first tried to defend Cheema, saying he was just relating the facts that had been presented to him, especially about the cause of death. “We are conducting an investigation and all TV footage, all evidence, that would be available will help in reaching a definite conclusion,” Soomro maintained.

“But the issue did not subside. More questions were asked with reference to the medical report of Rawalpindi doctors and it was emphatically pointed out that the report quoted by the spokesman never mentioned the cause of the head injury to Bhutto. It only said there was a head injury with a broken skull that caused cardio-pulmonary arrest,” The News said.

Soomro then referred the issue to the Interior Minister, who explained in detail the security measures that were taken and asserted that Bhutto had a bullet- proof vehicle that could not be damaged by any bomb or bullet.

Once Bhutto was inside the vehicle, Nawaz stated, she was secure and police vans were trying to keep her vehicle clear of other vehicles. But when she emerged from the sunroof, she exposed herself to an attack.

“Nothing would have happened to her even if everyone in the world had wanted to hurt her (if she had not come out),” Nawaz maintained.

“An editor again questioned why Cheema had overstepped by saying that a car lever had killed her when the manufacturers of the car and (husband) Asif Ali Zardari had stated that there was no metallic lever which could have caused the wound to her head. The medical report also did not mention any such cause of death,” The News said.

“Then the Interior Minister said the spokesman’s comments may have been a mistake as ‘we are faujis (soldiers) and we are not so articulate in presenting our views as you journalists can. I am sorry if that happened and please forgive us and ignore the comment’, Nawaz told the editors.”

Soomro was asked whether he would allow a foreign investigation into the murder but he continued to assert that Pakistani experts were fully competent to do the job.

“His continuous denials raised questions about the offer made by President (Pervez) Musharraf to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that foreign help (to probe the killing) could be welcomed by Pakistan,” The News said.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that ‘lever killed Bhutto’ theory

:rotfl:

What do you expect from these bunch of jokers led by the biggest clown the drillmaster.

the happy people thread
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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

the government makes mistake after mistake. this is a huge embarrassment.

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Ministry backtracks on Bhutto sunroof claims

lol so much for the loonybin claims coming from the Govt! Its becoming more and more obvious that they were involved in this assasination!!!

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) – Pakistan’s Interior Ministry backtracked Tuesday on its statement that Benazir Bhutto died because she hit her head on a sunroof latch during a shooting and bomb attack. The two suspects (circled) who the Pakistan government believe were involved in Bhutto’s assassination.

The government also published a reward offer in several national newspapers to anyone who could identify two suspects from the killing.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told CNN the ministry will wait for the findings from forensic investigators before making a conclusion about her cause of death.

Cheema said he based his statement Friday about the sunroof latch “on the initial investigations and the reports by the medical doctors” who treated her at Rawalpindi General Hospital. “I was just narrating the facts, you know, and nothing less nothing more,” Cheema said. :hehe:
“There’s no intention to conceal anything from the people of Pakistan,” an Interior Ministry news release said.
The reward offer, which appeared with photographs of the dead suspects, said that “the person identifying these terrorists will be awarded a cash prize of 5 million rupees (about $81,400) and his identity will also be kept confidential” – a total reward available of 10 million.
“The response from the public has been nil so far,” Punjab spokesman Ashfaq Gondal said Tuesday afternoon.
Athar Minallah, a lawyer on the board that manages Rawalpindi General Hospital, told CNN Monday that doctors did not make the statements attributed to them by the government.
The medical report – obtained by CNN from Minallah – made no mention of the sunroof latch and listed the cause of death as “Open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to Cardiopulmonary arrest.”
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said Thursday it was from a bullet or shrapnel wound, but then it announced a day later that Bhutto](Benazir Bhutto : News & Videos about Benazir Bhutto - CNN.com) died from a skull fracture suffered when she fell or ducked into the car as a result of the shots or the explosion and crashed her head into a sunroof latch.
Bhutto’s family and political party maintain that the government is lying, and insist she died from gunshot wounds.
Several videos show a gunman firing a pistol toward her just moments before a bomb detonated nearby as she left a rally.
The U-turn on the sunroof claims will only heighten speculation as to the exact cause of Bhutto’s death.
Minallah issued an open letter Monday and released the doctors’ clinical notes to distance them from the government statement.
In the letter, Minallah said the doctors “suggested to the officials to perform an autopsy,” but that Saud “did not agree.” He noted that under the law, police investigators have “exclusive responsibility” in deciding to have an autopsy.
Minallah told CNN that he was speaking out because the doctors at the hospital](http://topics.cnn.com/topics/rawalpindi_general_hospital) were “threatened.”
“They are government servants who cannot speak; I am not,” he said. He did not elaborate on the threats against the doctors.
He said the lack of an autopsy has created “a perception that there is some kind of cover-up, though I might not believe in that theory.”
“There is a state within the state, and that state within the state does not want itself to be held accountable,” Minallah said.
The three-page medical report, which was signed by seven doctors, described Bhutto’s head wound, but it did not conclude what caused it. It noted that X-ray images were made after she was declared dead.
The wound was described as an irregular oval of about 5 centimeters by 3 centimeters above her right ear. “Sharp bones edges were felt in the wound,” it read. “No foreign body was felt in the wound.”
Rawalpindi’s police chief was accused Monday of stopping doctors at the hospital where Bhutto died from conducting an autopsy.
It was a violation of Pakistani criminal law and prevented a medical conclusion about what killed the former prime minister, said Minallah.
However, the police chief involved, Aziz Saud, told CNN that he suggested an autopsy be done – but that Bhutto’s husband objected.
Cheema said the government had no objection to Bhutto’s body being exhumed for an autopsy if the family requested it.
Her widower,Asif Ali Zardari](http://topics.cnn.com/topics/asif_ali_zardari), has said the family was against exhumation because it did not trust the government.
Minallah said the family could not have prevented an autopsy at the hospital without getting an order from a judge.
The revelations about the exact cause of Bhutto’s death came after new videotape of her assassination emerged, showing her slumping just after gunshots rang out.
The tape provided the clearest view yet of the attack and appeared to show that Bhutto was shot. That would contradict the Pakistan government’s account.
A previously released videotape showed a man at the right of her vehicle raising a gun, pointing it toward Bhutto, who was standing in her car with her upper body through the sunroof. He fired three shots, then there was an explosion.
In the video that emerged on Sunday, Bhutto was standing, and her hair and scarf appeared to move, perhaps from the bullet. Bhutto fell into the car, then came the blast.These images seem to support the theory that Bhutto died at the hands of a shooter before a bomb was detonated, killing another 23 people.
Bhutto’s husband, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday, called for an international investigation into his wife’s death, saying the new video proves the Pakistani government “has been trying to muddy the water from the first day.” “Everything is now very clear that she was shot,” Asif Ali Zardari said.
Zardari also called on the U.S. government to push for an international probe. “I want them to help me find out who killed my wife, the mother of my children,” he said of the Bush administration.
The reward offer announced: “The public is hereby informed that the two individuals in the above photograph are the accused terrorists involved in the Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi Terror Attack, which resulted in the death of the Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and others.” ‘Mohtarma’ is a title of respect in the Urdu language.

“The person identifying these terrorists will be awarded a cash prize of 5 million rupees (about $81,400) and his identity will also be kept confidential,” said Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – a total reward available of 10 million.
“The response from the public has been nil so far,” Punjab spokesman Ashfaq Gondal said Tuesday

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

lol where are the ex-mqm-expert shooters telling us how the shooter would have failed lol

Aye Qauid-e-Azam Tera Ehsaan Hai
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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

Does it matter whether she died because of hitting her head on the lever or by the bullet. Even if she hit her head and died because of that, it will still be because of the explosion/ firing. I dont know why everyone is focusing too much on this issue. It could have just been an honest mistake on part of the doctors. The fact still remains that a person responsible for stealing 1.6 billion dollars(?) has become a martyr in Pakistan.

The Random Thread
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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

..and has shown that the 'biggest' democratic party is just a family business.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

yes! Pakistan main democracy lain gay, lekin hamari party ka leader sirf BHutto hi hoo ga. So much of PEOPLES party.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

After reading the medical report of the doctors, the lever thing appears so stupid.

But if one is to beleive that report is correct, nothing adds up. It cannot be the bullet, it cannot be the lever. Then what caused the fatal wound?

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

someone pulled a hathora group on her in the car?

but then u are assuming that the medical report is correct, frnakly, I dont trust anything said by anyone, govt, PPP, anyone.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

+1

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

I believe that BB died on the spot from fatal gun shot wounds. That doctors delayed the announcement and carried out open heart massage (knowing fully well that BB was already dead by the time her body was brought to the hospital) was merely a desperate attempt to minimise the wrath of her passionate supporters.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

^ so you believe its not a calculated move to hide it to protect soemone but more to minimize tha immediate backlash?

I am still confused about the xrays though.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

it's so embarrassing on an international level that i can just about laugh now....A Govt that claims to be much better than its predecessors has become THE laughing stock of the entire world. I say Mr. Cheema resign if he has any dignity left in him, and Musharraf just about step down because the damage's already been done. He can still save himself a few good words if he leaves now.

:(

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

teggy, JFK theories are still around.
lets first have the facts come out and see what its all about.
I frankly think that teh focus on bullet vs lever theories have pushed the bigger issue of how the killers got so close to her especially when she poked her head out, is being ignored.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

^True....

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

This government and its dirty game is pathetic to say the least.

It is clear that the shooter was at the back/left side of the SUV and BB's head would be 3-4 feet higher than the gun. When he fires and we see the head scarf and hair blow in the air, the bullet has rubbed through the right side of the skull, damaging and breaking skull to a degree where brain matter came out of it. That also supports the reason, why there was imense bleeding in the car. Another thing is that there could be more than one wound caused by two bullets.

longest chat?
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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

This one CNN reporter a while ago when the govt came up with the stupid level theory got it right, they want to distort her image and not let her die as a martyr which is why they are coming up with such things. This is kinda like how reze pehalvi was posting stuff against her even after she was dead. Same pro-musharraf mentality amongst his supporters, be it someone like chaudhry shujaat or someone here on GS supporting him.

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that ‘lever killed Bhutto’ theory

I see Musharraf lickers missing from this thread. I wonder why :hehe:

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Re: Pakistani Government retracts that 'lever killed Bhutto' theory

I cant believe that everyone is still trying to put her name in the top martyrs. Its very clear that she didnt give a damn about democracy. If she did, she would have allowed the leader of the party to be selected democratically. And here on GS no one remembers how she stole millions of dollars from a third world country. I am sure if I check everyones posts about a few years ago, everyone hated her for stealing soo much money from Pakistan, and now suddenly she was the savior of Pakistan. And now a person who can be called the most corrupt in the history of Pakistan, is leading this "pro-democracy" party. She is the last person who can be called martyr.

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