How did Pakistan's Bhutto die?

Please check out Rense.com for links to the following and other Bhutto news articles:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/bhutto.death/

How did Pakistan's Bhutto die?

Story Highlights
Latest explanation: Benazir Bhutto died from skull fracture by hitting head in vehicle
Pakistan Interior Ministry earlier said Bhutto died from shrapnel from suicide bomb
Earlier ministry report said ex-prime minister died from bullet wound
Analyst: Bhutto's enemies are trying to deny her a martyr's death

(CNN) -- Conflicting reports about what caused the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are fueling questions about the circumstances of her assassination.

Bhutto's political party disputed official versions of the incident, accusing the government of lying. Video footage of Thursday's attack on Bhutto contains a murky shot of a hand firing a pistol three times, but the Pakistani government said Bhutto -- who was standing through her vehicle's sunroof -- was not hit.

The latest explanation Friday by Pakistan's Interior Ministry said Bhutto, 54, died from a fractured skull after hitting her head on a piece of the vehicle.

Immediately following the gunfire, a suicide bomber ignited explosives near Bhutto's motorcade. Watch the video »

An Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, said Bhutto "fell down or perhaps ducked" and apparently hit her head on a lever connected to the car's sunroof. Cheema added that the lever was stained with blood.

Cheema's version of events conflicts with that of the government-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan, which at first quoted the Interior Ministry as saying shrapnel from the bomb blast killed Bhutto. The suicide bomb killed more than 20 others, and at least 100 were wounded.

On Thursday, an initial report from the Interior Ministry said Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck.

Bhutto's death did not result from a bullet or shrapnel, Cheema said, and nothing entered her head. Watch Cheema discuss Bhutto's killing »

Dr. Mussadiq Khan of Rawalpindi General Hospital, who treated Bhutto before she was declared dead, said she had "a big wound" on the side of her head "that usually occurs when something big, with a lot of speed, hits that area."

By the time Bhutto was brought to the hospital Thursday, she "was not breathing, she did not have a pulse," Khan said, and her eyes were not responding to light. Doctors tried unsuccessfully to revive her by cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said.

At a news conference, Cheema showed the video of Bhutto in the vehicle, standing up in the sunroof and looking out at the surrounding crowd.

Farzana Raja of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said the government's explanation is "a pack of lies," and she offered another explanation. "It was a sniper shooting," she said, also accusing the government of a "total security lapse."

CNN national security analyst Ken Robinson, who worked in U.S. intelligence in Pakistan during the Clinton administration, said he suspects Bhutto's enemies are attempting to control her legacy by minimizing the attack's role in her demise.

"They're trying to deny her a martyr's death, and in Islam, that's pretty important," Robinson said.

Bhutto, he said, threatens to become more influential in death than she was in life. "Her torch burns bright now forever. She's forever young; she's forever brave, challenging against all odds the party in power and challenging the military and Islamic extremism."

Only if Bhutto's family allows an autopsy, said Robinson, will the world know for certain the medical reasons behind her death. The Associated Press, quoting Cabinet sources, said Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, refused to permit an autopsy before she was laid to rest Friday.

The Pakistani government pointed to Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal leader from southern Pakistan known to have ties to al Qaeda, as a prime suspect.

One senior U.S. official told CNN there is information "... that leads us to believe he [Mehsud] is the guy responsible."

The official said Mehsud "had been trying to get Bhutto for some time" and described him as "one of the big players."

The Pakistani Interior Ministry also said it had "intelligence intercepts" indicating Mehsud was behind Bhutto's assassination.

There have been no claims of responsibility for Bhutto's death on radical Islamist Web sites that regularly post such messages from al Qaeda and other militant groups.

Hundreds of thousands of people jammed streets Friday surrounding Bhutto's funeral procession in Garhi-Khuda Baksh. Violence after the attack has left at least nine people reported killed and banks, train stations and cars torched.

Bhutto led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, but both times, the sitting president dismissed her amid corruption allegations. See a timeline leading up to Bhutto's assassination »

She was the first female prime minister of any Islamic nation.

A terrorist attack targeted her motorcade in Karachi in October on the day she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. Bhutto told Al-Jazeera television she believed Mehsud may have been involved in that attempt on her life, which killed 136 people.