Asking American leaders to “refrain” from making statements about the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto that could be “distorted and misused”, Pakistan on Monday said it was prepared to accept foreign assistance to probe her death.

A statement from the Foreign Office spokesman said the government “is making every effort to comprehensively investigate the dastardly assassination” of Bhutto.

“We owe this to the people of Pakistan and to the family of the former prime minister. The government is committed to a thorough and transparent investigation and will not shy away from receiving assistance from outside, if needed. No effort will be spared to establish the facts,” it said.

The government took “strong exception” to a report in the US newspaper Newsday in which American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had reportedly raised the possibility that Pakistan’s military might have assassinated Bhutto because the killing took place in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The statement said the news report had “twisted certain remarks by Senator Hillary Clinton to suggest that Pakistan troops might have killed Bhutto”.

Newsday quoted Clinton as saying: “There are those saying that Al-Qaida did it. Others are saying it looked like it was an inside job — remember Rawalpindi is a garrison city.”

“We reject such ridiculous, absurd and sinister insinuations that reek of animus against Pakistan and an intent to see Pakistan destabilised,” the Foreign Office said.

“We also expect that responsible leaders and public figures in the US would refrain from making statements that are likely to be distorted and misused and could further upset the people who are still in a state of shock because of the national tragedy.”