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 assassin who then blew himself up in a suicide attack. This happened at the 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 the 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 assassinated. 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.
Let’s not forget that Fatima Bhutto squarely blames Benazir for her father’s death…
and let’s not forget that her father hijacked a plane full of Pakistanis to Kabul and then to Damascus – and in the process killed a person…while terrorizing the rest for more than 2 weeks…
She should play a role – hopefully as the first decent Bhutto in Paki politics
Pakistan needs to seriously introspect after this terrible tragedy.
the riots that have broken out in pakistani cities will only compound the problem, and will do no good for the nations image.burning buses, looting and killings are no way to express grief.
true leaders of the communities would be those who are able to arrest the degeneration of mourners into mobs.
Ms.Bhutto already blamed left extremist Musharraf for her death:
tinyurl.com/yo56st
Musharraf failed to read the situation? I think things going in very much in favor of Punjab Elahi of Gujrat and Musharraf.
@PMA: Enemies of Pakistan? do you want to say that Bhutto family is/was FRIEND of Pakistan? being over emotional is quite natural but let’s not go offtrack and ignore history.
I feel sorry for her kids who had no fault and they lost their mother but one should not forget what PPP had done in Karachi in past.
Infact it was not only Ms.Bhutto who expired yesterday. There were several others who also lost their life but they are not remembered or mentioned because they were ordinary Pakistanis.
@Bhitai,
No, I am not saying Fatima Bhutto should stay in politics. Pakistan, unless a huge re-alignment is done now, is a lost cost and I am seriously burning my Pakistani passport away. I always had the option of a western country’s but chose not to do so.
Frankly, as an Urdu Speaking Pakistani I feel blood on my hands: We ‘Mohajirs’ were instrumental in bringing down ZAB. In my personal defence, I was too young then. But that can’t take the blame away. And today it was heartening to hear Altaf Hussain come out and call not only Benazir a martyr but also ZAB as martyr.
Make no mistake about it. As Aitzaz Ahsan said, unless Punjab steps forward in a healing process, we are going to see a 3rd front opening in Pakistan where (hitherto peaceful) Sindhi people are going to follow secessionist route along with the Baluchs and the Pashtuns. Add in Altaf, who has been in in the crosshair of the establishment, we have a dynamite ready to explode!
But I digressed!
Fatima Bhutto is very eloquent, if she is the real one who writes the revitting columns in newspapers. But she has the cursed name of ‘Bhutto’ which is worse than the ‘Kennedy’ curse word because Kennedies are not even half as much hunted as the Bhuttos, to say the least.
May Pakistan and the humanity find peace.
PS. Thanks to all those from seemingly western countries above. We are shocked right now. Your healing words mean a lot to us even if your (Bush led) govt. is a phony.