An aide of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and militant commander Baitullah Mehsud’s spokesman punched holes in the Pakistani government claim that the Pakistan People’s Party leader did not die of bullet injuries and that she was killed by Islamic militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban.

Dismissing as “absolutely nonsense” the government version, Sherry Rehman, a close associate of Bhutto, said: “There was a bullet wound in the back of her head and it (the bullet) was (powerful) enough to come out from the other side.”

The Pak Interior Ministry had said that Bhutto had died as a result of fracture in her skull she suffered when she hit her head against a metal lever on the sun-roof of her bulletproof vehicle.

Rehman, who was part of the group of women that bathed Bhutto’s body before her burial, said: “She was even bleeding while we were bathing her for the burial.”

Ruling out a probe by international bodies into the assassination of Bhutto, the Pakistan government on Saturday offered to exhume her body to conduct an autopsy to settle the controversy. “If there is any doubt, if Sherry Rehman says she has seen the bullet wound, her (Bhutto’s) body can be exhumed and a post-mortem (can be done),” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference. Taliban too claimed that they had no link to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, dismissing government claims that a leader of pro-Taliban forces in Pakistan orchestrated the suicide attack. Bhutto’s aides also said they doubted that militant commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack.

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