World | Pakistan
Pakistan turmoil may delay polls
Al Qaida denies role as bitter dispute erupts between government and slain leader Bhutto's party over cause of death.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 01:16 December 30, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- A supporter of Benazir Bhutto chants slogans as he jumps over a fire during an anti-government protest in Rawalpindi.
Islamabad: Pakistan's Election Commission is to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, amid growing signs the January 8 parliamentary elections may be postponed due to the crisis following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq announced the meeting, citing widespread violence after Thursday's killing of the Pakistan People's Party leader in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi. A bitter dispute erupted yesterday over how the opposition leader was killed.
Bhutto's party challenged the Pakistani government's version of the opposition leader's assassination and Al Qaida-linked militants denied being behind the killing of the 54-year-old leader.
"There was a bullet wound I saw from the back of her head and on the other side," Bhutto's spokeswoman Sherry Rehman, who was involved in washing her body for burial, said.
"This is ridiculous, dangerous nonsense because it is a cover-up of what actually happened."
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