LONDON: Benazir Bhutto was, without doubt, killed by the blast from the suicide bomb and not an assassin's bullet, according to a senior Western official who claims to have had access to "photos and other material" in possession of the Pakistan interior ministry.

The unnamed official, quoted by The Observer newspaper as having "extensive security expertise in Pakistan", said that all the evidence supported the Pakistani government's original, if controversial, claim that Bhutto died from a violent blow to the head  caused by the suicide blast.

The new Western claims buttressing the Musharraf regime's narrative about the assassination, came as the late leader's husband affirmed his determination to become a "Sonia Gandhi advisory figure" if the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) wins next month's elections.
 

In a moving account of his grief, Asif Ali Zardari told a UK newspaper that he felt "numb, lost" but was determined to carry on his wife's work, albeit in an advisory capacity. He recounted begging Bhutto the night before she died to stop holding poll rallies and letting him take her place.
 

The unnamed western official said that it was wrong to read too much into the footage of Bhutto's headscarf lifting up after the shooting. This happened, he said, because she was trying quickly to retreat into her vehicle.

Observers said the western official's remarks contrast sharply with a senior Pakistan government counterpart's belated admission that perhaps Bhutto had been shot dead after all.
 

The continuing confusion over the cause of Bhutto's death is seen  to heighten the sense of futility about the ongoing British attempt to help and professionalise the Pakistani investigation. Even as the five senior officers from  Scotland Yard's Counter- Terrorism Command get down to the gritty business of finding  shards of truth within the mangled mess that is the politicallycontroversial Pakistani inquiry,observers said their task appeared well-nigh impossible.