Adil Najam
News is just breaking that former Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi in a terrorist attack.
She was gunned down by an assasin who then blew himself up in a suicide attack. This happened at teh end of her rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi; the same place where Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister was assassinated. Major news networks are now reporting that following bomb blasts at Benazir Bhutto’s rally in Rawalpindi, shots were fired directly targeting her. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari says that one of these shots hit her in the neck and killed her.
According to early BBC reports:
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack, a military spokesman has announced on TV. Earlier reports said Ms Bhutto had only been injured and taken to hospital.
Ms Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally in the town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off. At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured. Ms Bhutto had twice been the country’s prime minister. She was campaigning ahead of elections due in January.
‘She expired’
The explosion occurred close to an entrance gate of the park in Rawalpindi where Ms Bhutto had been speaking. Benazir Bhutto had been addressing rallies in many parts of Pakistan
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar initially said that Ms Bhutto was safe. But later he told the BBC that Ms Bhutto had died. Another member of the PPP, Wasif Ali Khan, told the Associated Press news agency from the Rawalpindi General Hospital: “At 6:16 pm (1316 GMT) she expired.”
I, like most Pakistanis, am still too numb with shock and grief to think coherently about what has happened or what the implications of this are for teh country and for the world. But this I know, whether you agreed with her political positions or not you cannot but be in shock. Even as I type these lines I am literally shaking. Hers was a tragic life story. So tragic that had it not been real no one would have believed it.
At this point all sorts of thoughts float through the politics of this. Why did this happen? Why was it not stopped? What could have been done to stop this senseless murder? Maybe she should not have come back? Who did this? What will this mean for the elections? What will this mean for the PPP? What will this mean for Gen. Musharraf? What will this mean for Pakistan? But all of these are paled by thoughts about Benazir as a person. The woman. The wife. The mother. The human being. What about her?
I have not always agreed with her politically but there was always a respect for her political courage. I had met her many times, first as a journalist covering her when she had just returned to Pakistan in the Zia era and before she became Prime Minister. Later a number of times in her two stints as Prime Minister and thena few times during her exile. In that last period she toll to referring to me as “Professor sahib” and some of our exchanges were more candid (at least on my part) than they had been earlier.
At a human level this is a tragedy like no other. Only a few days ago I was mentioning to someone that the single most tragic person in all of Pakistan - maybe all the world - is Nusrat Bhutto. Benazir’s mother. Think about it. Her husband, killed. One son alledgedly poisoned. Another son assasinated. Daughter rises to be Prime Minister twice, but jailed, exiled, and finally gunned down.
Today, in shock, I can think only of Benazir Bhutto the human being. Tomorrow, maybe, I will think of politics.
disaster. shock. horror.
May The Almighty protect and guide us at this dificult time
May she rest in peace
I am not a fan of BB. But I don’t think even she deserved this. Allah will be her judge now. A lot of comments have portrayed her as a hero, or have designated this to be the “saddest day” in the history of Pakistan. At this point all I want to say is, I couldn’t disagree with you more.
A very sad news!!! Alas we are a nation who is reactive not pro-active. Hope we should all be united at this moment and instead of pointing fingers to individuals do some thing personal to curb the extremism in Pakistan.
Asim,
You really belong to http://www.pakistanidefenceforum.com where you will find many like minded ‘educated’ Pakistanis!!
Just spare us your ‘thoughts’ on this forum!! We have been judged unkindly the way we treat our livings. Let’s not give others excuse to judge us unkindly how we treat our deads!!
Benazir was a legend while she was alive. And now the whole nation is mourning her death except some bloggers like you and our so-called compatriots in other forums. But you cant’ ask the whole nation (and the world at large indeed) to follow your unkind ways. And there you and your kind will remain: Stewing in your hateful existence as Benazir achieves a place in history for eternities.
May ALLAH save us.
Pakistan is bleeding, we must unite and stand together. Please read my appeal to the nation at http://www.otherpakistan.org.archive.html
Feimanallah Pakistan
Wasim
My condolences to her family
This was very hard news for me to believe when A mate of mine texed me that Behnazir Bhutto been killed I do not know why people do this and what do they get out of it, and I still wish if this wasnt true but??
destroction of country wont bring Benazir back, so please do not distroy our own busses, cars, rikshaws and shops. May God bless her. Either you like Musharaf or not this is not the right way to fight, definitively not a islamic way.
biggest tragedy in the history of pakistan after the fall of dhaka.pakistan needed her now more than ever.i hated that she chose self exile over facing charges and i never stopped calling her a coward for not returning home and challenging the dictator. but when i heard about her assasination my first thought was that it would be better if she had not returned. she was a mother, a wife and more than that love of millions of pakistanis.
i’m sad . i’m scared . i’m crying