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.
meengla you said
As for Al-Qaida, may be they did it. May be not. One thing is sure that this govt. has no credibility left and whatever it says has to be taken with a bucket of salt.
I say:
This government is here to stay. Because Mushraf loves Pakistan and he takes steps to stay alive for the love of Pakistan. He is not running around looking out from sunroof of his car. Mushraf will not let Foreign army enter Pakistan territory but BB said she will.
Frontier areas has long loyal history with Pakistan. All the problems in those area need to be resolved with brain not with emotions. Mushraf is smart and has caused some frustration to the people who were investing in Bhutto.
Mushraf is best for Pakistan right now. Yes I want elections to be fair no matter what.Mushraf must put end to extremism in Pakistan.Yes day to day living is expensive in Pakistan for poors I want Mushraf to do something about it. Crises like shortage of Aataa should never happen again under his rule. Electricity problems in summer should be taken care.Mushraf must provide clean water to the poor people of Pakistan. Education for all. Health for all.Mushraf also slowly take out corrupted people working under him. lets talk about real issues
Reg. the claim that she died due to head injuries sustained by hitting her head against the car…
There was no autopsy conducted on her. And the site of her assassination was quickly washed away using fire engines. Why? Do we really believe the claim that no bullet or shrapnel was found inside her? Or was it the case that the bullet would provide uncomfortable evidence against certain people or entities? What evidence at the site needed to be quickly washed away? These questions will perhaps never be answered, just like the questions about Liaqat’s assassination remain unanswered more than 50 years after his death.
Just got sent a link to this op-ed article by Adil Najam and I think he is exactly right.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/12/28/200 7-12-28_saving_pakistan_from_itself.html
I want to thank again all non-Pakistanis who have expressed their condolences and warm words in this blog. I especially want to thank bloggers from India: In my opinion a lot of what is happening in Pakistan is because of the fact that Pakistan is a ’security State’ constantly in fear of Indian hegemony and that gives undue share to the military in Pakistan’s affairs. In this sense there cannot a ‘normal’ Pakistan unless peace or at least a credible detente is established with India.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_as/pa kistan_bhutto_world
has a few good videos (Bhutto’s Brave Stand) linked from the bottom of above link. One of the main reasons she wins hearts is her courage: Watch how she reaches out to the people in public places disregarding her own security.
As for Al-Qaida, may be they did it. May be not. One thing is sure that this govt. has no credibility left and whatever it says has to be taken with a bucket of salt.
BB died because of banging her head against a metal lock as she was either thrown forward by the blast shock-wave or she herself ducked forward as a reaction to the blast behind her. No bullet or any shrapnel was found in her. Her face only had one wound on the right temple. She died probably of the internal skull fracture and the consequent brain hemorrhage.
doctors report from Rawalpindi General Hospital (12 docs team) along with X-Rays and photos of the damaged vehicle have been shown on TV.
Simple fact of the matter, had she kept herself inside the vehicle, like her party leaders who were sitting inside and were not even scratched, she would have been alive today. These damn politicians should start listening to security professionals then to think that they are the master of the universe. Had BB listened, this would have not happened!
How much one can be sure that what the government is saying regarding Baitullah Mahsood is in fact correct and not another distortion of facts?
Challenge for Muslim world today is the people who are trying to spread Islam not with examples and their good behaviors but with violence. Among many Mullahs only handful are credible all others are only hurting the image of Islam. One does not care if they are hurting Islam intentionally or not. Bottom line is Islam has been hijacked by these selfish Mullahs. Now many moderate Muslims believe that these Mullahs are used by non Muslims to destabilized Islamic countries. Basically these mullahs are making it easy for non Muslim countries to humiliate Islam and control many oil rich Islamic countries for their interests.Going back in history British almost ruled all the Muslim countries but we saw no Jihad , what we saw was nationalist movements.Why has Jihad become a routine activity for these extremist since after Russia was kicked out of Afghanistan. I will call it falls impression was given of Jihad to Muslims reviving Jihad in the hearts of many Muslims when USA used Mujahdeens to kick Russia out of Afghanistan. At that time many Muslims started to believe if they can kick Russia then they can kick any super power. Then USA left Afghanistan leaving all the headaches behind for Pakistan. We all know creation of Talibans and al-Qaida was proudly done by USA . Many Mullahs were encouraged by departure of Russia by Mujahdeens crediting only Jihad. Truth is Mujahdeens won over Russians because they were fully armed by USA via Pakistan. And Mujahdeens knew the area well and I am sure the jihad passion also helped. But only with Jihad in mind with out any help from USA there is no way these Mujahdeens would have kicked Russia out of Afghanistan.For same reason now if Russia starts supporting Talibans like USA did. Yes they will kick USA out from Afghanistan too. All Pakistanis must protest USA anytime USA tells Pakistan that Pakistan has not done enough to eliminate extremists inside Pakistan. USA has given Pakistan few billion dollars to fight these extremists and Pakistan is providing services for that money. USA should not forget that in Iraq USA has spent 100 time more billions of dollars and still has not secceded in fight with extremist Muslims. Infect USA should reimburse all the money for all the headaches left behind for Pakistan after USA left Afghanistan in 1980’s.
Many moderate Muslims are never fans of these extremists created by USA. It was need of USA at the time. Pakistan was used for interest of USA.Now blaming Pakistan for the mess created by USA is very irresponsible by many Americans. What needs to be done is to find ways to calm down these Mullahs. USA should help Pakistan in doing just that. One of the way this can be done is to introduce new standards for Mullahs preaching in Mosques. I have come up with this idea which will help not only Pakistan but the whole Islamic world in getting rid of these illiterate Mullahs. As I personally see many of these Mullahs are cancer to Islamic world. Here is what Pakistan needs to do. Establish institutes for these Mullahs to get them graduated before they can preach to the people. In those Institutes these Mullahs should be trained to preach Islam the way it should be preached. Not by coming up with their own lines making people believe those lines are from Koran.
Before they join those institutes they should be checked for back ground check.Also scholars teaching these Mullahs should be well known to Muslim world. Muslim countries do not need Mosque on every corner of each road. They need responsible Mullahs with fewer Mosques. This needs to be done right away. Why? As we all know 80% of people’s brain are developing based on what these Mullahs are telling them. Is this not alarming? Is this not worth taking action now? You all tell me by discussing below in comment area.
Those horrible Al’Quida?(sp) I just saw that on the news here in the US. This is just too horrible for words. I hope God gives these idiots the punishment they truly deserve!! How little inhumanity these people have, they have killed someone’s mother, wife, leader and they have no remorse. The suicide bomber is serving his sentence in hell right now and it’s too late for him. Mrs Bhutto is in HEAVEN with God and peaceful!