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It can hardly have been the most pleasant of tasks. Important perhaps, but certainly not pleasant. British police dispatched to Pakistan to help investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto have visited the Rawalpindi morgue to examine the partial remains of other people killed in the attack on the
former Prime Minister.
The British team apparently looked at unidentified limbs, took photographs and gathered samples of material from the bomb site.
Two weeks ago Ms Bhutto was killed as she stood up through the sunroof of her bomb-proof car as she left an election rally at Liaquat Bagh park in Rawalpindi and investigators - officially at least - appear no closer to identifying who may have committed the bomb and gun attack. Anecdotal evidence suggests many people believe the authorities were in some way involved. And many say the police, British or Pakistani, have only the slimmest of chances of getting to the bottom of the attack, which left 23 others dead and many more wounded.
Indeed, as the days go by, there is a growing sense that no matter what the team from Scotland Yard uncovers, the killing of Benazir Bhutto will join other A-list mysteries about which most people will make up their own minds.
The JKF parallels
In all likelihood, as is the case with the assassination of President John F Kennedy, people will probably be talking about the killing of Ms Bhutto 45 years from now.
"A day after her murder, Fox News were calling this Pakistan's Kennedy assassination," said Ayesha Tammy Haq, a Pakistani columnist and television talkshow host.
"All accounts following the attack, including those of people close to her, those in the cars in front and behind her, vary, so one wonders what the real and accurate story is. I hope the team from Scotland Yard is able to conclude this investigation and tell us how she died."
There are two main reasons why it seems certain Ms Bhutto's death is headed for the conspiracy files.
Who benefited?
One is that, as with J. F. K., there are many groups or individuals who may have benefited from Ms Bhutto's removal from the political scene.
President Pervez Musharraf appeared outraged last week when a journalist asked how the country could hold peaceful elections when many people in Pakistan believed he had blood on his hands.
"I am not a feudal, I am not a tribal. I have been brought up in a very educated and civilised family that believes in values," he raged. In reality, many Pakistanis suspect either Mr Musharraf or elements of his government were responsible.
In turn, the government blames al Qaeda or Taleban-backed militants. Officials even released a transcript purportedly recorded between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and an unidentified cleric on which he claimed responsibility for dispatching a three-man team that killed Ms Bhutto. Others have questioned whether the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), the ruling party which supports Mr Musharraf and which faced losing its dominance to a resurgent Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by Ms Bhutto, had something to gain by her death.
A cover-up?
The other chief reason for the ongoing controversy about who was responsible for Ms Bhutto's death is the number of changing statements by the government and witnesses, and the resultant belief that someone is involved in a cover-up.
Several questionable decisions, taken both by the authorities and by Ms Bhutto's senior officials in the hours after her death, have also hindered the investigation.
In the immediate aftermath, the government said she had been shot in the head and neck and had died from the gunshot wounds and the explosion.
But a day later, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Javed Cheema, claimed - remarkably - that she had not been shot or hit by shrapnel after all but that she had died after fracturing her head by striking it on the lever that operated the vehicle's sun-roof.
Despite general disbelief, the government has not renounced this claim, though at the weekend Mr Musharraf did admit to journalists that it was "absolutely" possible Ms Bhutto had been shot dead, a theory apparently supported by video footage taken at the scene.
The fatal injuries
Ms Bhutto's supporters have always insisted she was shot in the head. Her spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, who was with her when she was killed, insists she saw a large bullet wound, possibly where the bullet exited Ms Bhutto's head.
Though British police have spoken to witnesses, they will have to satisfy themselves with forensic evidence gathered by the Pakistani police. Police logs show that within 75 minutes of the attack, the authorities had hosed down the scene of crime area, again triggering claims by some of Ms Bhutto's supporters that they were trying to cover up something.
And yet Ms Bhutto's supporters also took decisions that, in hindsight, have added to the confusion. Most significantly, no full post-mortem examination was performed.
With Ms Bhutto's body on a plane to be flown for burial at her ancestral family home, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was asked if he wanted a post-mortem examination. He declined, and shortly afterwards Ms Bhutto was buried alongside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, another former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Given the cultural sensibilities and Ms Bhutto's position, it is all but inconceivable she would be exhumed and an examination conducted.
In the absence of such information, British detectives will have to make do with what they have.
Mahabat Khan, a shopkeeper whose premises are opposite Liaquat Bagh, said he had heard all the conspiracy theories about Ms Bhutto's death and had been gauging which have more purchase among the people he meets. "There were people Benazir named in a letter before she died, people who stood to benefit from her death," he said.
"Scotland Yard detectives were around here the other day. I hope they can get somewhere. But it's not going to be possible for them to reach the people Benazir mentioned in that letter. No inquiry held in this country is fair. No one here ever takes responsibility for anything."
- Independent
