New Twist, New Turn in Benazir Bhutto Assassination

ISLAMABAD: The controversy over former premier Benazir Bhutto's
assassination has taken another turn with a section of her Pakistan People's
Party (PPP) claiming she was targeted with *sophisticated "laser beam
technology". *

Bhutto's wounds were caused not by bullets but by some sort of laser weapon,
'The Nation' newspaper said quoting sources in the PPP.

When Bhutto was admitted to Rawalpindi General Hospital shortly after the
fatal attack on her on December 27, doctor Musaddiq Khan, who treated her,
told a PPP leader that he had seen "such a case for the first time in his
life", sources said.

Bhutto's wounds were not caused by bullets and she had died before reaching
the hospital. A part of her brain and blood had spilled out from her head,
they quoted the doctor as saying.

The sources also claimed both the gunshots and the bomb blast in the attack
on Bhutto "were a decoy to hide the real shooters".

The paper further quoted the sources as saying that the militant leader
Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban, blamed for her assassination by the
government, did not have such technology.

Mehsud had sent two messages to Bhutto after the suicide bombing of her
motorcade in Karachi on October 19 in which he said that he had no hostility
against her and would not make any attempt to kill her, they said.

The PPP sources said after the suicide attack, the "ambulance also picked up
a dead body behind the stage of Liaquat Bagh", the venue of an election
rally that Bhutto had addressed.