Many Pakistanis see government hand in Bhutto death

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Nearly half of Pakistanis believe government agencies or government-allied politicians were involved in opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a poll found, as President Pervez Musharraf again dismissed such suspicion.

Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27 as she was leaving an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.

The government has blamed al Qaeda-linked militants for her death and for a string of other bomb attacks in recent months, many on the security forces, which have killed hundreds of people.

Bhutto, who was seen as close to the United States and was a staunch opponent of militancy, had said al Qaeda had tried to kill her in the past.

She would have been an obvious target of the militants, who were reported to have issued suicide-bomb threats against her before she returned from exile in October.

But many Pakistanis don't believe militants killed her.

According to a poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan, and seen by Reuters on Sunday, only 17 percent of 1,300 people from across the country surveyed thought the Taliban or al Qaeda killed the two-time prime minister.

Twenty-three percent of those surveyed suspected government agencies were involved while 25 percent suspected politicians allied with the government.