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.
I just wanted to offer my condolences at this tragic loss. What a waste of life. There is too much senseless killing all over the world by everyone. I hope people will soon realize that killing does not solve anything. IT only breeds more killing.
ALL banks in Sukkhar were burnt by unknown people. AAJ TV
I am still in shock. May Allah grant her soul peace and her children with patience. No one deserves to be killed – yet this was pre-ordained in her fate.
There will be many theories and many talks on terrorism, but only Allah knows who the real culprits are behind this sick game and what the motive/s were.
As for the suicide bombers that carry out this act – if we were to provide for the poor properly and implement unity and education in our infrastructure, then these bombers would not be born.
The US (bush) will leap at this opportunity to repeat the same old record of terrorism. The event will no longer be broadcasted as an Assassination, but more of a radical extremist (Islamic) attack. Was JKF and Ghandi’s destiny not the same? But I do not recall anyone saying, the Christian that killed JFK, or the radical Hindu that killed Ghandi. Why is my religion ALWAYS plunged into this pattern of blame? first my religion, and now, my country is being slated?
I wish our people could understand that the only way to implement democracy is through non-violence, as once stated by Ghandi. (Why are you setting fire to your own land? Surely, the damage has been done, why are you adding to it? – where is the gain in ambushing the streets of your own home?)
It has been referred to as a ‘time bomb’, a corrupt place, a dangerous country. PAKISTAN has been defamed worldwide on the media as a country that is incapable of doing anything right.
Tears are filled in my eyes, that want to explode. I love my country, I can’t bear to see what is going on. When will a leader with a true, clean heart and sole objective to prosper Pakistan come into place???
I swear, if I knew how, I would stand for election myself (accompanied with a bullet proof vest)
A nation cannot be changed by its leader, the change must take place in the people and if they are united in a just cause and way of life, they have succeeded.
By the way, If I won the election, the first thing I would do is implement LAW in Pakistan ( Real Law & Justice ) and real POLICE (and change the murky uniform infested in corruption to a bright trustworthy colour full of integrity).
May Allah (SWT) guide our people and protect our country and may we implement the prescribed..UNITY, FAITH & DISCIPLINE within ourselves.
Saima
LONDON
Indeed a sad day for Pakistan. The terrorists did not kill Benazir, but they have killed PPP on the whole as a party. The big question now remains, will PPP survive as a party without Bhutto-ism?
Pakistan will go on. Pakistan is bigger than the BB’s Nawaz Sharifs, Musharrafs and the likes! Although a tragedy, but this will in turn make our nation stronger and wiser.
Time has come to once and for all purge the element of extremism from our society in Pakistan even if we have to round up, line up and publicly shoot these country-less foreigners using our soil and our people as tools for their deranged and misguided jihad-like cause.
When will the Muslim world stand up and expel the terrorists who, I am afraid, will terrorize their way to power all over the Muslim world. I am an American Christian who simply cannot understand Islam and its propensity for deadly violence. All my prayers and thoughts go out to Ms. Bhutto, her family and to all the God loving people of Pakistan. I pray the righteous and decent Muslim majority will finally stand up to Al Queda. God Bless Pakistan and God receive and bless this beautifully courageous woman.