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 don’t know which ‘Benazirian’ here is defending the burning of ambulances?! No one! TV Commentators are saying that the first wave of protests come in the form of burning and destruction. This is followed by seasoned looters who thrive on the ripe playfields of Pakistan’s political violence.
But I won’t rule out supporters of BB are involved in burning ambulances: They reflect the society at large and had it been some other party which had faced such trauma then similar scenes could not be ruled out. Heck, when our dear president can beat up lawyers and NGOs then what to expect of others?
May god console her family and take care of her. Good bye Ms. Bhutto be ni the arms of God…..Farewell with tears
One thing is for sure, things have gone beyond the Faujis of Pakistan who nothing but to get more money and power. But I just hope that this high profile killing would dent the status quo and the relationship between the people and the Army would never be the same again and the latter would have to be cut to size, i.e. its proper role. Only that would ensure long term stability for Pakistan. But the Pakistani Generals are just too money and power drunk and arrogant to act on their own. They would have to be kicked out of the affairs of the state.
Assassination of BB would have huge repercussions for Pakistan in particular and the whole world in general. I don’t know what they would be, but they would be enormous.
Just like nothing really happened in the short term on the gruesome shahadat of Imam Hussain, but in the long term it changed the history of Islam. World War I started with the killing of the Austrian Prince. It seems like the politics of Pakistan would revolve around BB for at least a decade or two.
My condolences to Benazir’s immediate family and friends.
It was a heineuos crime committed by the religious fanatics in the form of ISI agents. Benazir was the only unifying figure who represented all the provinces of Pakistan!
It’s about time that we dismantled the criminal ISI which is only killing its own people.
Shame on chaudry brothers and on the remanent of Zia. They are the major suspects in yesterday’s killing.
To Rafay Kashmiri:
Have you got any clue that those who set alight Edhi’s ambulances were Benazirians. They could well have been the supporters of the remanents of Gen. Zia!