RAWALPINDI, Jan 7: “A man wearing sunglasses was standing about three metres from Benazir Bhutto’s car and was firing at her with a pistol. As soon as I jumped to overpower him, a mighty explosion occurred.”

These are the words of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Ishtiaq Hussain Shah, who gave his first interview from hospital on Monday. Ishtiaq Shah was among those who sustained multiple injuries in the Dec 27 attack.

President Pervez Musharraf has also admitted that Benazir Bhutto might have been shot. Until now the authorities had been claiming that she died of a skull fracture caused by a lever attached to the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle.

The DSP said that he saw some people appear from nowhere and stop Ms Bhutto’s car while she was leaving the rally.

“I don’t know who they were or from where they came. They were carrying flags of the Pakistan People’s Party and shouting pro-PPP slogans. They just appeared on the road,” he said. “I started to clear the way for Ms Bhutto’s vehicle. I saw a man who was probably wearing a grey jacket and sunglasses shoot from the crowd towards Ms Bhutto. I jumped to overpower him. He was about 10 feet away from my position. A mighty explosion took place soon afterwards.”

He said seconds later he found himself lying at a distance from the scene and darkness overtook the place.

DSP Shah said that he was on the left side of Ms Bhutto’s car.

About security arrangements made by the police for the rally, he said that they were “absolutely perfect”, insisiting that there had been no security lapse on their part.

Ishtiaq Shah, however, said he got worried when he saw that the walk-through gates were not working because of a power breakdown. He feared that people would get inside the rally venue without any security check.

He said he immediately called Rawalpindi Electricity Supplying authorities and requested them to restore power supply. Later, he said he had sought Naheed Khan’s help for getting the power supply restored.

He said: “My family has been in distress since I got injured, but I am thankful to God that I survived.”