Scotland Yard said Friday that Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb blast, not gunshot.

A news conference is held in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the joint investigation team briefed reporters about the investigation of Bhutto's death.

The Scotland Yard report concluded that an attacker fired shots at Benazir Bhutto before detonating explosives on Dec. 27. The attacker was just one to two meters away from Bhutto's vehicle and he was not obstructed.

The report said the blast caused violent collision between Bhutto's head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle. Benazir Bhutto died as a result of severe head injuries.

The primary focus of the Scotland Yard team, which comprised 11 members, was to determine the cause of Bhutto's death.

The police arrested a suspect named Hussain Rafaqat who helped the suicide bomber, the Additional Inspector of General Crime Investigation Department Abdul Majeed said when addressing the news conference.

Abdul Majeed said intelligence agencies provided useful information to the probe.

However, the People's Party rejected the Scotland Yard report and still believed Bhutto was killed by a gunshot, local TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.

Benazir Bhutto was moving out of a park in Rawalpindi where she addressed an election rally when an attacker fired shots and blew himself up just a few paces away from Bhutto's vehicle. Bhutto was injured in the attack and declared dead after being shifted to a local hospital.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2008)