Saturday, December 29, 2007

The Bhutto Conspiracy

Ooo, I do love my conspiracy theories. There hasn't been a shortage of them flying around, since the death of Benazir Bhutto, the twice former PM of Pakistan. I'm not very familiar with Pakistani politics, but I do have some Pakistani friends who have told me their versions of things.

The Pakistani Government claims that:

  1. She died due to hitting her head on the sun roof lever of the car, as she dove into the car to avoid the bomb attack. They would have us believe that she hit her head on the way down, and bled to death due to injuries. They claim that the hospital did not find any bullets nor any evidence of her being shot.
  2. Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack, and this news was quickly picked up by most of the western media organisations. Within hours, they produced intercept evidence that allegedly suggests that Al-Qaeda were involved. However, anyone with a bit of brains would've smelt something fishy. It was just all too neat, too convenient.
Now, we have claims by other parties:
  1. Al-Qaeda has denied responsibility for the attack. They had previously threatened to welcome her back to Pakistan with bombs. They have even praised the person/people involved as brave souls. However, they deny having any hand in the actual event. They claim that the charges levelled at them were false.
  2. Her political party claims that she was shot in the head and neck. They also claim that a doctor from the hospital had alleged that she had died of a gunshot. There were also claims that the security forces, who were guarding her, left their posts minutes before the attack.
I'm confused by a couple of things though:
  1. The fact that nobody had ordered an autopsy. I gather that it's possibly due to religious grounds. However, I would've expected it to be done, due to the volatility of the situation and the stature of the person who had died.
  2. The fact that no forensic evidence had been dug up to support either side's case. Granted, the suicide bomb blast would've destroyed much of the evidence. However, I would think that they'd be able to at least find something solid.
Anyway, here's a YouTube video of her, seconds before the attack. There's a very clear picture of a pistol, being fired at her, from under 2 metres away. However, considering the magnitude of the situation and the source, I would watch the video with some caution.



I'd just like to say that, if she was truly attacked by the deadly sun-roof lever, that would've been a terribly unfortunate way to go. If you were to ask any Pakistani, they'll point their fingers at the ISI before they'd even think of blaming it on Al-Qaeda.

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