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.
It is a very sad news.
Sridhar > That is true.
Sad news
Horrible thing to wake up to.
She was standing on top of her motorcade with no bullet proof vest or any sort of protection. What were her security people thinking?
Two months ago a suicide bomber killed 130 people around her. I mean… her father, brothers and sister were killed…
Shouldn’t she maybe have stayed in her car? Or taken a helicopter? or thrown a diversion…
Now the country is with out a person who could have brought positive change. Her kids are with out a mother.
Horrible
I’m still stunned. I wish this were just a bad dream.
It is a terrible loss indeed,The bhuttos remind me of the kennedies.May Allah(s.w.t) give her family sabr at this time of mind numbing grief
And people please,please stop thinking negatively.Pakistan will prevail inshallah.you guys are our intellectualls, the brains of our society plz plz dont push us(the youth) down the cynical road.
Pakistan Zindabaad!!!!
Pakistan Zindabaad!!!
Pakistan Zindabaad!!!!
allah B.B ko jannet naseeb karey aur mulk k dusmanuen ko halak karey
I heard on the radio just now that she was killed at Liaqat Bagh in Rawalpindi. Isn’t it the same place where Liaqat himself was assassinated?
its a terrible terrible loss
no matter what, she was a symbol of hope for the future
god knows what else is there in store…
RIP - daughter of the east
This is yet another attempt to destabilise Pakistan. It will benefit only the enemies of Pakistan both within and outside the country. Pakistani Taliban and their supporters, the Al-Qaeda types, and Islamic extremists , none of them have any interest in stable and progressive Pakistan. On the other hand they will like to create maximum chaos in the country with the hope of emerging as the only controlling force. This is a sad sad day for Pakistan. Only enemies of Pakistan could take comfort in such barbaric killing of a national politician, no matter how controversial.
Inna-lillahay wa-inna alayhay rajayoon
It is sorry news that BB got assassinated and thus got shaheed. People may have differences with her and what she did to Pakistan while in power, but than that does not mean that anyone should have any two thoughts about her death.
Unfortunately, she knew the danger and she was warned many times but in love of power and adamant of doing public rallies, this unfortunate thing was waiting to happen. Here is a warning to her that was coming before she even entered Pakistan.
Daily Times: Friday, October 05, 2007
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 %5C10%5C05%5Cstory_5-10-2007_pg1_6
— says his bombers are waiting for Benazir Bhutto
ISLAMABAD: Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has threatened suicide attacks against PPP Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto, saying his bombers are waiting in the wings to “welcome” her when she returns, FATA Senator Saleh Shah told Daily Times on Thursday. Shah is a close friend of Mehsud and is currently trying to broker a deal between the Mehsuds and the government to secure the release of around 250 abducted soldiers. “My men will welcome Bhutto on her return. We don’t accept President General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto because they only protect the US interest and see things through its glasses. They’re only acceptable if they wear the Pakistani glasses,” Shah quoted Baitullah as saying. He said that Mehsud, who killed three soldiers out of the hostages and has threatened more executions, had a following of 35,000 highly trained and organised fighters, including a ‘suicide squad’. Shah said he was not optimistic about succeeding in negotiations for the release of the hostage soldiers. He said Baitullah had asked the government to release 30 of his men, but that was difficult because some of them were being tried in courts. “When I tell Mehsud that his men are in legal custody, he asks what bars Gen Musharraf from going above the law and releasing his men when the president can violate the law and the constitution for his re-election,” Saleh said. azaz syed