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.
initially reported BB as injured, then seriously injured & dead half an hour later. While the government once again called it suicide bombing ( easiest way to forget everything) the fact that there was firing on her first shows there is more to it then what the authorities say. I personally i think its again a Chaudhry planned, ISI sponsored drama as she was becoming too heavy for establishment. One due to her hardcore anti-Taliban views, secondly her animosity towards the Chaudhries of Punjab (who by the way do have some sympathy towards Taliban & were quite prominent in helping Madrassah’s in past, Ejazul-Haq being prominent. It helps them keep the rural Punjab in darkness disallowing education especially for girls). Her trust on USA led her down again. In the end it will be the people of Pakistan paying the price as our leaders continue to repeat history.
But these are all rants & i am quite confident in assuming they will remain so just like all establishment sponsored acts remained hidden.
The emergency was recently (at least on paper) removed but from the outlook i smell Martial Law as other reports coming from Karachi & elsewhere are not good. Where we heading for heaven’s sake.
@khan saab: i enjoyed how much your mind got stirred. *smirk*-
Adnan is actually right about the Army and so-called “religious scholars”… I would just add the name of behroopias like Taqi Usmani and Bin Ladin and Mullah Umar to his list of people who feel comfortable telling otehrs what the religion is about without having any clue… even some posters here (especially Adnan) seems very comfortable pontificating and preaching about their own piety as if they are the new prohets of God. Allah help us from all of them.
Our messages post Oct. 18th attack bear witness to my admiration of BB when many, if not most, were actually accusing
and your _brave_ BB’s PPP *begged* only Rs.5,000 to family of those KARKUns aka Jiyalays who lost their for your BB.
reading comments like above, I find no difference between an illetrate and ignorant villager who is ready to give his life for “daughter of Bhutto” and a learned man who earns education in good institute.
Kisi ki aankh se aanso churak kuch nahen milta munderon se charaghon ko bujho k kuch nahen milta koi aik aadh sapna ho to phir b acha hai hazaron kwabaankon man saja kar kuch nehen milta