Behind the Spin

The Pakistan Peoples Party rejected government claims that a Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the assassination of its leader Benazir Bhutto, as the death toll from rioting rose to 32.

Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander is suspected of plotting the Dec. 27 suicide attack that killed Bhutto, the Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters yesterday. Mehsud denied the claim, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a spokesman.

The government ``is trying to divert the investigations into Bhutto's killing,'' Farhatullah Babar, her spokesman, said in a phone interview today. ``Mehsud had already denied he planned to assassinate Bhutto.''

Benazir Bhutto's spokeswoman Sherry Rehman says she saw a bullet wound in the Pakistani opposition leader's head when she bathed her body after her assassination.

Ms Bhutto's spokeswoman Sherry Rehman, who said she was in the former prime minister's motorcade at the time of the gun and suicide attack on Thursday, rejected Government claims that the death was caused when Ms Bhutto's head hit her sunroof.

"I was actually part of the party which bathed her body before the funeral," said Ms Rehman, who added that her car was used to transport Ms Bhutto to hospital.

"There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side.

"We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood,'' she said.

Ms Rehman accused the Government of mounting a cover-up over Ms Bhutto's death.

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