The Pakistan government has blamed the al-Qaeda for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto saying the terror group was responsible for a series of suicide bombings aimed at destabilising the country.Interior ministry spokesman Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema said: "al-Qaeda commander Baitullah Mehsud" masterminded the suicide bombing against Bhutto, and intelligence agencies had intercepted a conversation in which he congratulated certain persons for the attack.Cheema also told a news conference that Bhutto had not been struck by a bullet or shrapnel from the suicide bomb but had died after her skull was fractured when she hit a metal lever on the sun-roof of her armoured vehicle.The spokesman's account of the reasons for her death was the third since Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after an election rally in Rawalpindi yesterday. PPP leaders had initially said Bhutto was hit by shots fired by the suicide attacker, while caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan later said a medical report indicated she was injured by shrapnel during the blast. (Reporting by Rezaul H Laskar)COMPLETE COVERAGE: TURMOIL IN PAKISTAN
