Thread by @oolabmys

...sun set in #Rawalpindi that day at 5.07 p.m., leaving behind a hazy twilight when Bhutto got into her bulletproof vehicle with a foldable escape hatch or sunroof to leave the site of her speech. She then stood up in the vehicle, poking out of the escape hatch to (1/22)

acknowledge her cheering followers. At 5.16 p.m., three shots rang out, followed by an explosion. She fell inside the vehicle, wounded and bleeding from the side of her head. Her staff quickly moved her to the nearest public hospital.

According to a report prepared by (2/22)

the staff who attended her at the emergency department of the Rawalpindi General #Hospital, where she was received by Dr Aurangzeb Khan and Dr Saeeda of Surgical Unit II: ‘A wound was present on the right temporoparietal region through which blood was trickling down and (3/22)

whitish materials which looked like brain matter was visible in the wound. Her clothes were soaked in blood.’

The cause of death was determined to be ‘open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest’. Various conflicting reports (4/22)

emerged after this attack regarding the nature of the attack and the cause of death. No autopsy was requested by Bhutto’s husband and none was performed by the authorities. The site of the attack was quickly hosed down and much of the evidence washed away.

The major (5/22)

agency involved in the handling of the assassination and its aftermath was Musharraf ’s Interior Ministry. Its spokesman, Brig. Javed Cheema, came on television the following day to present evidence that, he believed, linked the assassination to Baitullah Mehsud, the (6/22)

leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban #Pakistan (TTP), playing a recording of an ‘intercepted’ conversation that purported to indicate that the #TTP had contracted out the killing. Cheema informed the media that Bhutto had died from a fractured skull resulting from her fall (7/22)

against a lever of the sunroof of her vehicle. The government of the day wanted to solve the murder in short order and move on.
..But Zardari did not believe that. Sherry Rehman said that when they washed her body there were bullet wounds.

#Much later, President (8/22)

#Zardari wanted to send the case of Bhutto’s death to the United Nations for investigation, since he clearly did not trust the local authorities, even when his own party was running the government. He was cautioned against bringing the #UN into the inquiry since (9/22)

Pakistan would lose control of the matter once it landed in the UN’s lap. Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan, who counselled against the move, was quickly sidelined and retired.

According to the detailed reporting of Heraldo Munoz, the head of the UN team that (10/22)

investigated the death at the request of President Zardari, many questions remained unanswered about the government’s handling of the crime scene, the speed with which they produced the evidence against the TTP, and the behaviour of Bhutto’s own party staff before, (11/22)

during and after the attack. He cites reports of suspicious behaviour of Khalid #Shahenshah , one of the security guards, while she was speaking at #Liaquat #Bagh, including making a signal with his fingers across the neck. Shahenshah himself was killed later in (12/22)

#Karachi under suspicious circumstances.

The person in charge of the security for Bhutto was #Rehman Malik, a former official of the Federal Investigation Agency and interior minister in Bhutto’s government. He was in a back-up car that immediately after the attack (13/22)

reportedly headed to Islamabad instead of following his wounded leader to the hospital. Later, as Minister of Interior (for the second time) in the Zardari government, he presented a bound report to Munoz dated 20 June 2009 and entitled ‘Summary of Investigation and (14/22)

Trial Conducted So Far for UN Fact-Finding Commission’.

‘I think your work will be made easy when you read this document,’ said Malik, adding, ‘This is very complete. This is your own report ready to be issued, of course, with the changes and additions that you may (15/22)

see fit.’

Munoz concluded that Malik ‘never satisfactorily answered our questions about his role and actions during the moments surrounding Bhutto’s assassination’. Yet Malik was President Zardari’s confidant and the main interlocutor with the Commission. He had been (16/22)

convicted of corruption in 2004. Zardari used his ‘discretionary powers’ to pardon him after taking over as president and then made him Minister of Interior again. Why? Among other things, a senior US official dealing with Pakistan told me confidentially, ‘because he (17/22)

knew too much’.

Bhutto’s death changed the internal dynamics of the party. Zardari, who prided himself on his loyalty to friends and sought the same from his friends and colleagues, brought in his own team of friends and relatives into key positions. The Bhutto (18/22)

loyalists of the ancient regime fell into line. He inherited an economy on the downswing and headed a coalition that was beset by continuous blackmail by his various partners. Soon, he had to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to get assistance to stabilize (19/22)

the economy.

But lack of institutional mechanisms and whimsical decision making produced less than ideal results. Zardari was also wont to reverse rules and regulations to please business groups from Karachi. He did favour improvement of relations with India and (20/22)

Afghanistan. Inviting Afghan president Hamid Karzai to his inauguration as president was a smart PR move. But he could not follow up since the Afghan policy was largely made in army headquarters in Rawalpindi with controlling input from the ISI Directorate. The civilian (21/22)

government did not devote the manpower or resources needed to formulate sound or sustainable policy on security or foreign relations.

The Battle for Pakistan
By Shuja Nawaz (22/22)