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.
Tragedy indeed, but to wail like that…..pathetic. I feel not a bit sorry for what has happend but my heart aches what people are doing to themselves. It’s nobody’s loss except for your own. Burning the stores/banks/shops/homes, what good will it do.
All those idiots living under the regime(whether it was BB’s, Nawaz, or Millatary) nothing better happend. Only corruption prospered. If people want to catch the culprit then they need to educate their future generations and stop acting like wild animals let loose in the urban jungle.
And for the students or the jiala’s of either party PPP or Muslim League or for that matter any party, Stop kissing the leaders ASSES, They are not going to do anything and you can learn it from their past ruling time. They just keep promising and promising. Ask them to become philanthropist. I bet they’ll prefer to be self exiled then to give away that wealth.
Anyways, One advice for Musharraf. If i were in your place, i would instead of ordering shoot on sight i would round up all the miscreants and have them do community service. You can make new roads, build or correct the sewer system. and i’m pretty sure, by the time these miscreants have paid their debt to society they would wish they had not been a part of that activity. On the other hand they have contributed to the betterness of the country.
I don’t see any future except the People Of Pakistan Suffer and Suffer. God Bless them. They deserve all of it including myself being from there.
Sometime back we had a post on Munir Niazi by Adil Najam. Benazir’s assassination reminds me of Niazi’s famous lines quoted in that post. I copy them below with a minor change by me in the translation:
kujh unj we raahwaN aukhiaN san
kujh gall icch gham da tauq ve see
kujh shehr dey louk ve zalim sann
kujh sanouN marran da souq ve see
Yes, the path I chose was hard
Yes, there was the noose of grief around my neck
Yes, the people of this land were also cruel
But, then, I too wanted to get killed
Ms. Bhutto was Pakistan’s JFK and Lady Diana rolled up in a single personality. She was Camelot incarnate to Pakistani’s in her first term in office. This time around she brought a mature and healing personality to bear on the dying nation. Even Gen. Musharraf must be wondering on the cancerous legacy he brings to his country.
Anti-mullah elements, get some senses now !!
stop inciting hatred.
@ The non-mullahs are directly responsible for
this stupid murder, the PPP ‘s communists
know even the names and addresses of the
murderers.
Islamists have nothing to polish there, OK?
have any foggiest clue, then come out with it !!
That Nawaz Sharif is milking this for all he can, has he no shame!
The Mullahs of Pakistan are responsible for the death of Benazir and the deaths and hurt of Pakistan, these Mullahs need to be dealt with firmly and without mercy – they will destroy Pakistan…
We Pakistanis must awake and fight back against those who want to destroy Pakistan.
And I was a supporter of Nawaz until I saw him use Benazirs martyrdom as his political stool.