Updated at 18.13 IST

Islamabad: Dismissing as "absolutely nonsense" the Government version, a close aide (pictured with Bhutto) of slain Benazir Bhutto on Saturday asserted that the former Prime Minister was hit in the head by a bullet.

"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," said Sherry Rehman, adding that the wounded Bhutto was taken to hospital in her car.

Rehman described as "absolute nonsense" the interior ministry spokesman's statement that Bhutto had died as a result of fracturing her skull when she hit her head against a metal lever on the sun-roof of her bulletproof vehicle following a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Rehman, who was part of the group of women that bathed Bhutto's body before her burial yesterday, also dismissed claims that Bhutto had been hit in the stomach by a second bullet. "I saw her body and there was no wound in the stomach," she said.

"There is no confusion about the cause of her death," she was hit by a bullet," Rehman, who was Bhutto's spokesperson, said.

She also described the government's account of Bhutto's death presented last night during a press conference by interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema as a "concoction" and a "cover-up".

Pakistani TV channels today repeatedly aired footage of the attack provided by the interior ministry which showed one of Bhutto's personal security guards pushing off a man who tried to clamber on to her armoured vehicle as it left the venue of an election rally she addressed in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

A short while later, the man was seen again jostling with persons guarding the vehicle and then firing three to four shots. The firing was followed in quick succession by a blast.

Interior ministry spokesman Cheema had also held the al Qaida responsible for the attack on Bhutto and said her assassination was masterminded by Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal militant commander who was recently made chief of the Tehrik Taliban-e-Pakistan, a coalition of pro-Taliban groups from northwestern Pakistan.

But Rehman said the al Qaida leader had already issued a disclaimer claiming he was not involved in the attack on Bhutto.

"The al Qaida is a ready party one can blame (for such attacks) but then Baitullah Mehsud has already issued a disclaimer that he was not linked to the attack," Rehman said.

Maulvi Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for Mehsud, called reporters in Peshawar this morning and said the Pakistani Taliban commander was not linked to the attack. He described the government's claim about Mehsud's involvement as "propaganda".

Rehman said: "There was a security lapse and now there seems to be a cover-up or a campaign by the government."

Rezaul H Laskar

Source : Agencies