Who killed Benazir Bhutto? That is the million-dollar question. Many suspects have been named, motives have been discussed, fingers have been pointed at friends and foes alike but exact circumstances of her killing remain unclear.
One thing is clear who ever had plotted to assassinate Benazir Bhutto had clearly done his homework and had understood her psyche of how she likes to mingle with the people after her rallies.
Suspects and motives
Besides the suspects one other thing that matters the most is the motive behind the killing and who gains the most by getting her out of the picture.
Al-Qaeda/Taliban element: The main suspects in the assassination are the foreign and Pakistani militants who saw Ms Bhutto as a westernised heretic and an American stooge, and had repeatedly threatened to kill her.
One was Baitullah Mehsud, a top militant commander fighting the Pakistani Army in South Waziristan, who has ties to al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. The other was Haji Omar, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who is also from South Waziristan and fought with the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
A day after her assassination, the interior ministry in its press briefing laid the blame on the Al-Qaeda/Taliban element namely Baitullah Mehsud.
But that theory was not bought by most quarters as the al-Qaeda issued a statement the next day that they don’t believe in killing women and they had no enmity with her.
Mr Mehsud's spokesman promptly denied the interior ministry's allegation, claiming that the audiotape of the alleged telephonic conversation is a fake.
He has also demanded investigation into the killing by "independent" agencies to identify the actual culprits.
The US also said it is not aware of any report in which Osama bin Laden or the Al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Even Benazir when alive didn’t consider Baitullah Mehsud a threat to her despite his threats to deploy suicide bombers against her.
Benazir in her several interviews to the western media had said: "I'm not worried about Baitullah Mehsud, I'm worried about the threat within the government," she said, adding, "People like Baitullah Mehsud are just pawns. It is those forces behind him that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country."
Intelligence agencies: Whenever a high profile blind murder occurs in the country we tend to think at once the agencies must have done it. The same instincts developed when Benazir was killed.
Benazir Bhutto before her assassination had said she suspected that some retired military officers had aligned with extremists who could be plotting her assassination on her return to the country.
Brigadier (retired) Ejaz Shah, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Ahsan Wasim Afzal had been speculated in the media to be named by her in a letter written to President Musharraf before her return to the country. In the letter she had stated that if something happens to her these people should be blamed.
Ironically the day she returned to the country on October 18, an attempt was made on her life in Karachi in which more than 200 people died but she luckily escaped.
Benazir accused Pakistani authorities of not providing her with sufficient security, and hinted that they may have been complicit in the Karachi attack.
She indicated that she had more to fear from unidentified members of a power structure that she described as allies of the “forces of militancy”.
The government: In her e-mail letter to CNN Wolf Blitzer, with explicit instructions that the letter should only be opened in case of her death, had stated that President Pervez Musharraf should be blamed in case she is assassinated.
Analysts say that President Musharraf is unlikely to have ordered her assassination, and he already has too much on his plate with US pressure on holding elections on time, fighting extremism and terrorism, and wheat and power crisis.
However analysts believe that elements within the army and intelligence service stood to lose money and power if she became prime minister.
The ISI includes some who became radicalised while running the American-funded campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan and were opposed to her on principle.
However President Pervez Musharraf vehemently denied that Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies were behind Benazir Bhutto's killing, and implied she was partly at fault.
Despite threats by militants, Bhutto poked her head out of the sunroof of her vehicle to greet supporters at an election rally, Musharraf had said.
"The same military and intelligence agencies are using the same people who are attacking them? It's a joke," Musharraf said at a news conference, answering accusations that people connected to his government were involved in the suicide bomb and gun attack that killed Bhutto a week ago.
Zardari/PPP: The new video footage in which a bodyguard of Benazir Bhutto is seen doing strange gestures certainly makes one think twice about the allegation levelled by the PML-Q league that elements within the PPP might be involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The person has been identified as one of the personal servants of Benazir Bhutto named Khalid Shahinshah who started his strange antics onstage the moment Benazir started her speech, and one of his "strange gestures" included moving his hands across his throat as if imitating slicing of the throat. It is pertinent to note that initial reports of firing on Benazir indicated bullet wounds in her head and throat.
PPPP sources have reported that the moment Benazir ended her address, Khalid Shahinshah was the first one to dive into her bullet proof Land Cruiser; an unusual change from past routine whilst he always boarded the vehicle after Benazir, often hanging by the external pedestals of her Cruiser, as was evident in videos.
Khalid Shahinshah is said to be the right hand man of Mr Zardari and had been involved in several illegal activities.
Security elements have expressed their deep concerns about his suspicious movements, which they insist cannot be ignored, and said that his arrest can provide answers to many questions.
Analysts have also opined that it is strange that PPP was very reluctant in getting the autopsy of Benazir, as well as exhume the body despite the government’s willingness to exercise both options to determine the cause of her death.
Despite the number of suspects the investigators are still not that much close to finding the real killers due to lack of evidence and alleged cover-ups.
We can only hope that this murder, the most tragic in the history of Pakistan, does not remain unsolved and the Scotland Yard team known for its expertise would give the nation the answer, the much-deserved answer as to who killed Benazir Bhutto?
