Intriguing questions that need answers

Media coverage of Benazir assassination Thursday evening and the way the news was broken in instalments has aroused several misgivings and left many questions unanswered. The news of the blast was reported instantly followed by the assurance that the PPP chairperson WAS SAFE. Within 5 minutes of the attack it was reported the head of the suicide bomber had been found.

In the next stage of the coverage, news broke that Benazir had been taken to the District Hospital for check-up. The next development was that she had been injured followed by the news that Sherry Rehman and Naheed were also among the injured. This was repeated time and again. In the meantime there was hardly any news about the nature of the blast except that it was a 4-kg explosion caused by a suicide bomber whose head had been recovered.

The third development that was reported was about the gun shots that were heard before the blast. It was a stray piece of information that was not repeated or emphasized in the news build-up. The story developed another serious twist when news came Benazir was having difficulty in breathing. Viewers kept wondering till the next and shocking piece of news was announced. This was after the channel has succeeded connecting with Ms Bhutto’s husband Mr Zardari. He said that Benazir had been seriously injured and appealed to people to pray for her life. While this piece of news was being repeated, the utterly unbelievable and shocking news of her death was broken.

It was at this stage that the gun shots were mentioned again. It was reported that she was shot at before the bomb explosion which meant there was a sniper involved beside the alleged suicide bomber. But soon while the shooting news was still in the minds a flash came that suggested that she might have suffered a heart seizure due to exposure to the explosion, meaning she had suffered no body injuries. This created the impression that there had been no shooting.

But this last theory was not emphatically mentioned again. The viewers were made to understand that Benazir had been killed by the bullet of an assassin who had first fired the shots before exploding himself. This meant there was no second person. The channels then reported an official version saying the slain leader of the PPP might have been killed by a shrapnel from the blast. Mr Amin Fahim in the meantime told the channel his leader had been killed by a gunshot seconds before the explosion.

The question is who was feeding this gradual development of the story to the channels. Who heard the shots before the explosion? Who made the statement that the shooter and the bomber were the same person? If they were and the same person, it means Benazir was shot at from ground level by a person close by who exploded his ammo seconds later near the vehicle carrying her. It means the hundreds of people surrounding her vehicle could not spot and stop the attacker from pulling out a gun and shooting there leader from close range and later exploding himself. This is something that needs to be explained if it is still held that the shooter and the bomber were the same person.

But if they were two persons, where had the sniper hidden him in tree nearby of a building, and where had he gone with his gun. And if the other part of the story that she was killed by a bullet is true as claimed by Amin Fahim then are efforts being made to find him? People are also unable to understand that indecent haste in which the slain leader’s body was packed in a box and flown away to her home town for a quick burial without a proper and mandatory post- mortem, though the interior minister has produced the medical report which dismisses the bullet and insists on the shrapnel theory. It is hoped that these intriguing questions will figure in the upcoming official inquiry.