It was not a bullet, president told at high-level meeting
Friday, December 28, 2007
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
**ISLAMABAD: Benazir Bhutto was not hit by a bullet but by a shrapnel of the suicide bomb which was triggered exactly when the bomber saw her emerging from her vehicle’s sun roof to wave to the crowds, a top-level meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf was informed on Thursday night. **
Sources said the meeting was also informed that Benazir Bhutto had taken her seat in the rear of the jeep but saw an emotional crowd waving at her. She opted to respond by coming out of the sun-roof and waved at them. The suicide bomber saw her and blew himself up, hitting her in the neck with a piece of shrapnel.
She slumped on her seat and PPP Vice-Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was sitting on her left and Ms Nahid Khan, who was sitting on her right, could not gather that their leader has been fatally wounded, since they were in panic to see the blast outside the jeep.
As the vehicle moved a little ahead, they found that Benazir Bhutto was bleeding profusely. They rushed the jeep towards the General Hospital as initially they were going towards Islamabad and had crossed the Committee Chowk. Otherwise, they could have taken her to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), which was nearer to Liaquat Bagh.
Highly placed sources told The News on Thursday evening that the high-level emergency meeting that was chaired by President Pervez Musharraf at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, discussed the fallout of the tragic incident.
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who was in Karachi to meet the officers and Jawans of the Corps had to rush back to the capital on hearing the news about the demise of the former prime minister with whom he had served in the early 90’s as deputy military secretary.
Interestingly, General Kayani was the only senior officer present with President Pervez Musharraf when he had the historic meeting with Benazir Bhutto at the Musharraf palace in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi in July this year. Then he was the director general inter-services intelligence (ISI).
General Kayani also took part in the interactions and deliberations with different political leaders, including Benazir Bhutto, for quite sometime till his promotion as the four-star general. The meeting at the Presidency was also attended by the prime intelligence agencies and other heads of the law-enforcement agencies. **The initial report that was submitted to the high-level meeting disclosed that Benazir Bhutto was hit by the ball bearings of the suicide bomber’s jacket that hit and cut her jugular vain. **
It caused her excessive internal and external bleeding. As a result, she died in no time. The report was submitted before the post-mortem was performed on her body. The exact nature of the wounds would be determined by the post-mortem report.
Meanwhile, Caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro will take the Cabinet into confidence about the deliberations of the high-level meeting at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday evening. The meeting will also discuss the overall situation.
Political observers are of the view that the holding of the polls on January 8, 2008, has become an almost impossible proposition. A change in the caretaker set-up is also likely because the mandate of the caretaker administration would be changed once the polls are deferred. In that case, it would be an interim set-up that could last for a few months with bringing stalwarts of various national parties in it, observers said.
The sudden and dreadful demise of Benazir Bhutto is bound to change the national political scenario. A decision pertaining to the fate of the upcoming general elections would be taken before early next week. Caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro will make an important announcement after the meeting of the federal cabinet.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/arc_default.asp
