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| India-Pakistan |
| It was not a bullet, president told at high-level meeting |
| 2007-12-28 |
| 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 vehicleÂ’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. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #12 Well, either multiple "armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle", or they didn't. Though I suppose the vehicle has already been crushed and recycled. |
| Posted by: KBK 2007-12-28 13:31 |
| #11 No takers for the "she hit her head" theory? depends on the bullets vs bombs timing. I could easily see a blast wave helping smash her head on the vehicle on the way down. Course, it prolly wouldn't matter much if she was fatally shot first |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-12-28 13:20 |
| #10 No takers for the "she hit her head" theory? |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-12-28 13:05 |
| #9 Which account was that, again? I'm losing track. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-12-28 12:59 |
| #8 Unless someone has iron-clad proof, I'm going to go with John Moore's account. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-12-28 12:41 |
| #7 Ms. Bhutto had descended the stage at Liaquat Bagh, Liaquat Bagh is named in memory of the First Pak PM Liaqiat Ali Khan. It was at this park that he was assassinated. The killer, who was apprehended, was shot dead by a Pakistani policeman. Dead men tell no tales. Liaqiat was the first Pak leader to use the "After me, the Mullahs" blackmail against the west and India. He was supposedly the only non-islamist leader, the sole hope of the west. Ironically, it is a succession of supposedly non-Islamist pro-western Pak leaders who radicalized the Pak population, funding mullahs and madrassas and brainwashing the masses via Radio, TV and textbooks. |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-12-28 10:04 |
| #6 A working theory, according to this American source, is that Al Qaeda or affiliated jihadist groups had effectively suborned at least one unit of Pakistan's Special Services Group Perv is SSG |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-12-28 09:55 |
| #5 JFs #2 has that yeah, that sounds about right read to it - the NY Sun story has that UFOz on the Grassy Knoll feel. Still, it's Pakistan, it'll all become clear in time. No.. wait... |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-12-28 09:52 |
| #4 Perv's military buddies(ISI) work in hand in hand with jihadi groups which they use in Kashmir,India and Afghanistan.They see Bhutto as the biggest threat to their military rule! History has repeated itself check her fathers fate at the hand of the Paki miltary!!!! |
| Posted by: Paul 2007-12-28 09:47 |
| #3 That's one story. Here's another, which jibes with Frum's comment; first shots, then explosions: The attack yesterday at Rawalpindi bore the hallmarks of a sophisticated military operation. At first, Bhutto's rally was hit by a suicide bomb that turned out to be a decoy. According to press reports and a situation report of the incident relayed to The New York Sun by an American intelligence officer, Bhutto's armored limousine was shot by multiple snipers whose armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle, hitting the former premier five times in the head, chest, and neck. Two of the snipers then detonated themselves shortly after the shooting, according to the situation report, while being pursued by local police. Assassination Is Laid to Team of Precision Snipers |
| Posted by: KBK 2007-12-28 09:35 |
| #2 A first-person account by The Hindu’s Pakistan Correspondent who was close at hand Ms. Bhutto had descended the stage at Liaquat Bagh, the venue of the rally, and got into a waiting car behind the stage. The vehicle, accompanied by several other escort cars with her supporters and PPP bodyguards, was leaving the venue when the explosion took place, about 5-20 p.m. I was about 30 feet away from the blast in a crowd of people waiting to leave the rally from a parallel gate. A wall separated the two gates. The police had stopped us so that Ms. Bhutto’s convoy could leave. I heard two rounds of automatic gunfire, which I mistook to be firecrackers at first. In the next second, a huge ball of flame went up in the air, accompanied by a massive explosion. People screamed and ran in all directions. I ran away from the blast first, and then went back towards it, quite apprehensive that there would be a second blast. Daylight was fast fading but the first thing I saw was a dismembered head, face down, lying just outside the gate where I had stood hours earlier. The road was spattered with blood well beyond the gate where I had stood seconds earlier. A little distance away, where the bomber had struck, lay several bodies, many of them dismembered. There was thick blood on the road and people were surging back and forth from the scene. Many of them were crying, some shouting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf. The police were trying to keep the crowds away — without much success. Some dazed PPP activists stood among the bodies, beating their heads and wailing. Ms. Bhutto’s car had apparently sped away from the scene, and PPP workers at the spot believed she had got away. Sherry Rehman, her spokesperson, who was in a car behind Ms. Bhutto’s, also thought the PPP leader had escaped the attack. |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-12-28 08:56 |
| #1 How convenient that all the bomb debris evidence was washed away by the local Fire Department... |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-12-28 07:36 |