The Pakistani government has supposedly gained intelligence that suggests terrorist organization al-Qaeda is responsible for the assassination of former PM, Benazir Bhutto.

Interior ministry spokesman, Javed Cheema, claimed security forces had intercepted a conversation that involved congratulations between al-Qaeda leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and another militant on Thursday evening after the incident.

Mehsud has denied any involvement in Bhutto’s death.

Alternative ideas are inevitably circulating amongst citizens and the media, sparked predominantly by inconsistent reports of her cause of death.

Cheema reported that Bhutto was killed from injuries incurred by the car’s sunroof as she came under attack. This is inconsistent with initial reports that point to gunshot wounds or shrapnel as reasons for death.

A senior official of the Pakistan People’s Party, Farooq Naik, attacked the government’s account as a ‘pack of lies’, saying Bhutto’s murder was ‘an irreparable loss and they are turning it into a joke with such claims.’ Naik maintained that

‘two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head...a lot of people in Pakistan believe that there may be some kind of conspiracy behind the assassination’.

Dr Mussadiq Khan, Bhutto’s surgeon had said earlier she may have died from a shrapnel wound. Bhutto’s security adviser, Rehman Malik, stated she was shot in the neck and chest. The spokeswoman for Bhutto, Sherry Rehman, also says she saw a bullet wound in Ms Bhutto’s head after the assassination.

Adding to the confusion, Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s Pakistani correspondent, said people had noticed the car Bhutto was travelling in was unmarred by Thursday’s attack, undermining the government’s report.

Suspicion also surrounds the method adopted by authorities after the attack, namely hosing down the street soon after the blast which undoubtedly removed valuable evidence.

Photograph courtesy ABC.

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