Scotland Yard sleuths helping Pakistani authorities in the probe into the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto are expected to face an uphill task as vital forensic evidence at the scene of the attack has already been destroyed.

The five-member team from the British Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command last night examined the armoured Toyota Land Cruiser in which Bhutto was travelling when she was attacked by a gunman and a suicide bomber after an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27.

The Scotland Yard team took photos of the bomb-damaged vehicle, especially of the damage caused by splinters from the suicide bomber’s explosive device, at the police lines in Rawalpindi, said district nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas. The vehicle has been impounded by police and declared a “case property”.

The team will visit the site at Liaquat Bagh where Bhutto was attacked and the Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was taken after the attack, to record statements of doctors who tried to save her. It is also expected to record statements of some persons who were injured in the suicide attack.

However, analysts said the British team would face difficulties because of the lack of forensic evidence. Police had not cordoned off the assassination site, which has become almost a public memorial for Bhutto.

The area was also washed hours after the incident an act that has been criticised by even President Pervez Musharraf.

Analysts said the team would also face difficulties because no autopsy was conducted on Bhutto’s body at the request of her husband Asif Ali Zardari. The government has offered to exhume the body, but her family appears reluctant to allow this.