Scotland Yard: Bhutto Died From Blast, Not Bullets

Scotland Yard said in a report released Friday that Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot — findings that support the Pakistani government’s version of the events.

Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party immediately rejected the British conclusion and repeated its demand for a U.N. investigation.

The party says Bhutto was shot and suspects a government cover-up because Bhutto had accused political allies of President Pervez Musharraf of plotting to kill her.

Scotland Yard's conclusions mirror those of the Musharraf government, but here's the problem (or one of several).

No one has done an autopsy on Bhutto's remains. She was swiftly buried without any such examination that could determine the cause of death. It's an incomplete investigation at best, using scant forensic evidence. While it is plausible that she could have died from the blast combined with hitting her head on some part of the vehicle in which she was driving, unless you do a physical examination of her body, there's no way to know for sure.

So, for the Pakistanis, especially those aligned with her political party and that of Nawaz Sharif, who are suspicious of Musharraf generally and don't trust his position on the assassination (and some claim he was responsible), this does little to settle things. If anything, it only further complicates matters.