British police say blast killed Benazir Bhutto

British police investigating the murder of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto concluded she was killed by a head injury caused by the impact of a bomb blast, not by a bullet, they said in a report released yesterday.

The police also said all evidence suggested Mrs Bhutto had been attacked by one person, who fired shots and detonated explosives, and was not attacked by two people as many Pakistanis had speculated.

Two-time Prime Minister, Mrs Bhutto was killed as she stood up through the sunroof of her armoured land cruiser to wave to supporters as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27.

Her killing raised grave fears about stability in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The government said she was killed when the force of the bomb blast smashed her head into a lever on the sunroof but her political party and her husband said she was killed by a bullet.

The controversy over exactly how she was killed has only fuelled suspicion government agencies were involved in her assassination.

President Pervez Musharraf has denied he or any security agency or the military were involved.

The government and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) say an al Qaeda-linked militant chief based on the Afghan border was behind her killing.

In the face of widespread scepticism of the government's explanation, Mr Musharraf asked Britain's Scotland Yard to help investigate the murder.

The British High Commission released an executive summary of their report yestrerday, which backed up the government's explanation.

"The only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb-blast," British government pathologist Nathaniel Cary said in the report.

"In my opinion... Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle," he said, referring to the sunroof.

No autopsy was carried out, at the request of Mrs Bhutto's family.

The British team only investigated how Mrs Bhutto was killed, not who was behind it.