Former Pakistani prime minister and chairperson of People's Party (PPP) died after the sunroof lever hit her in the head, local newspaper DAWN quoted interior ministry spokesman as saying on Saturday.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said in a news briefing that Benazir Bhutto was hit by sunroof lever on her right side, which caused her death.

Bhutto was killed on Thursday in a blast when she left her election campaign rally in a park in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, some 30 kms south from Islamabad.

Earlier, media reports suggested that gun shots or bomb blast could be the direct cause of Bhutto's death.

Cheema confirmed that three gun shots were fired but none of them hit Bhutto. A report signed by seven doctors showed that there was no bullet or shrapnel inside her body.

Bhutto was laid to rest alongside her father's mausoleum in the village of Ghari Khuda Baksh in the southern province of Sindh on Friday. Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari did not allow doctors to perform postmortem on Bhutto.

Cheema also disclosed that Al-Qaida operative Baitullah Mehsud was behind the assassination of Bhutto. He said, "We have recorded a telephone call of Baitullah Mehsud in which he congratulated a cleric for killing Benazir Bhutto."

Cheema said that Bhutto was on the hit list of Al-Qaida and she was receiving life threats from the same group since her arrival in Pakistan.

Baitullah Mehsud was also involved in suicide attack on Bhutto in the southern port city of Karachi on Oct. 19 when she was leading a procession, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)