[wvns] Benazir Bhutto Assassinated: Pakistan Rioting
Riots break out in aftermath of Bhutto's death
Shyema Sajjad, Special to CTV.ca
Thu. Dec. 27 2007
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071227/karachi_report_071227/20071227?hub=TopStories
KARACHI, Pakistan -- The major cities in Pakistan, including the
garrison city of Rawalpindi, have all broken out in chaos after the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto, chairperson of Pakistan People's
Party.
The buildings are being torched and there are people out on the
streets yelling anti-government slogans, attacking vehicles on the
road. In Karachi, riots have broken out on the streets and people are
leaving their cars parked on the road and walking home to avoid being
attacked.
In residential areas in Karachi, such as the Defence Housing
Authority, people are running around with sticks and stones, attacking
cars passing by. Gas stations are being torched and there is mayhem
among the groups who don't know whom to blame and what implications
lie ahead for the country.
There is a lot of apprehension about what lies next and the people who
are out on the streets are being motivated by sadness and anger.
Bhutto, a key player in Pakistan's upcoming election, was a hero to
many. Her death has caused mixed emotions as people vent their anger
and confusion out on the streets. There is also a fear that this was a
ploy to delay Pakistan's democratic process.
Weddings were left abandoned and restaurant meals left untouched as
people raced home and all public places closed down.
A big explosion occurred at 9 p.m., local time, opposite Park Towers,
one of the largest malls in Karachi. People across the mall were
stoning cars and shouting PPP slogans as terrified shoppers rush to
escape.
Anti-Pervez Musharraf slogans are being yelled out in the cities. And
in Larkana, Sindh, people are walking around with guns on the street.
At least 10 banks have been burnt in Larkana, according to local news
alerts. Buses are also being torched to block major bridges leading to
Karachi's industrial areas.
The people on the streets, of all ages, are large groups of young men.
Election posters and banners are being torched and an address was made
to the nation by President Pervez Musharraf who stated that the flag
will be raised at half-mast for three days in Pakistan.
Gun shots can be heard in Karachi's residential areas and not a person
can be seen on the streets of the quieter areas. Houses are being
locked and bolted to avoid attacks and no one is stepping out of their
homes. With phone lines jammed and television stations randomly going
off-air, people are making sure they have supplies in case electricity
is turned off as well.
Even those who were not particularly in favour of her policies are
shocked and saddened by her violent and sudden death and the mixed
emotions can be seen on the streets where people are turning to
violence as their confusion and anger prevails.
Shyema Sajjad, a journalist in Karachi, attended Ryerson University's
journalism school in Toronto last year.
===
Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated at Rally
By SADAQAT JAN and ZARAR KHAN,AP
2007-12-27
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/pakistans-bhutto-assassinated-at-rally/20071227081909990001#addNewCmmnt
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Dec. 27) -- Pakistan opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack. Her death threw
the campaign for critical Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos
and stoked fears of mass protests and violence across the
nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
At least 20 others were also killed in the attack on a campaign rally
where the 54-year-old Bhutto had just spoken.
Photo Gallery: 'She Has Been Martyred'
Tariq Mahmood, AFP / Getty Images Pakistani opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto died after a shooting and suicide bombing at a campaign rally
in Rawalpindi Thursday. "The surgeons confirmed that she has been
martyred," Bhutto's lawyer said.
Her supporters erupted in anger and grief after her death, attacking
police and burning tires and election campaign posters in several
cities. At the hospital where she died, some smashed glass and wailed,
chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf blamed Islamic extremists for Bhutto's death and said he
would redouble his efforts to fight them.
"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in
war," he said in a nationally televised speech. "I have been saying
that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists. ...
We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, where
they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the elections, an
official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed thousands of
supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of
Islamabad. She was shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who
then blew himself up, said Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser.
Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party, said he was
standing about 10 yard away from her vehicle at the time of the attack.
"She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after
addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans
in her favor. Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle's
roof and responding to their slogans," he said.
"Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back
and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going
away," he added.
Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.
She died about an hour after the attack.
"At 6:16 p.m., she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's
party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.
"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer
Babar Awan said.
Bhutto's supporters at the hospital exploded in anger, smashing the
glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit. Others burst
into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party
tied around his head was beating his chest.
"I saw her with my own eyes sitting in a vehicle after addressing the
rally. Then, I heard an explosion," Tahir Mahmood, 55, said sobbing.
"I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead."
Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in
her killing.
"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security
and appropriate equipment ... but they paid no heed to our requests,"
Malik said.
As news of her death spread, angry supporters took to the streets.
In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters
set tires on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a
gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot
and wounded two police officers, he said.
In Rawalpindi, the site of the attack, Bhutto's supporters burned
election posters from the ruling party and attacked police, who fled
from the scene. Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar
and many other parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto's supporters set fire
to a bus, pelted stones at shops and blocked city roads.
Musharraf, who announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, urged calm.
"I want to appeal to the nation to remain peaceful and exercise
restraint," he said.
Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and opposition leader, arrived at
the hospital and sat silently next to Bhutto's body.
"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the
revenge for her death," he said. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We
will take the revenge on the rulers."
Speaking to the BBC, Sharif also questioned whether to hold the elections.
"I think perhaps none of us is inclined to think of the elections," he
said. "We would have to sit down and take a very serious look at the
current situation together with the People's Party and see what we
have to do in the coming days."
Hours earlier, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his
supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.
Bhutto's death will leave a void at the top of her party, the largest
political group in the country, as it heads into the elections. It
also fueled fears that the crucial vote could descend into violence.
Pakistan is considered a vital U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida
and other Islamic extremists including the Taliban. Osama bin Laden
and his inner circle are believed to be hiding in lawless northwest
Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.
In Washington, the State Department condemned the attack.
"It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to
subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy," deputy
spokesman Tom Casey said.
The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach
an accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, who was
seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her party had been
widely expected to do well in next month's elections.
Pakistan was just emerging from another crisis after Musharraf
declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, and used sweeping powers to
round up thousands of his opponents and fire Supreme Court justices.
He ended emergency rule Dec. 15 and subsequently relinquished his role
as army chief, a key opposition demand. Bhutto had been an outspoken
critic of Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, Bhutto served twice as
Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996.
Her father was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, scion of a wealthy landowning
family in southern Pakistan and founder of the populist Pakistan
People's Party. The elder Bhutto was president and then prime minister
of Pakistan before his ouster in a 1977 military coup. Two years
later, he was executed by the government of Gen. Zia-ul Haq after
being convicted of engineering the murder of a political opponent.
Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18.
On the same day, she narrowly escaped injury when her homecoming
parade in Karachi was targeted in a suicide attack that killed more
than 140 people.
Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban hated Bhutto for
her close ties to the Americans and support for the war on terrorism.
A local Taliban leader reportedly threatened to greet Bhutto's return
to the country with suicide bombings.
At the scene of Thursday's bombing, an Associated Press reporter saw
body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh
park, where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including
police, and could see many other wounded people.
Police cordoned off the street with white and red tape, and rescuers
rushed to put victims in ambulances as people wailed nearby.
The clothing of some victims was shredded and people put party flags
over their bodies. Police caps and shoes littered the asphalt.
Hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints around the
venue. It was Bhutto's first public meeting in Rawalpindi since she
came back to the country.
In November, Bhutto had also planned a rally in the city, but
Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears.
In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security
forces in Rawalpindi, where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has
its headquarters.
===
Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally
By Salman Masood and Graham Bowley
The New York Times
Thursday 27 December 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122707Q.shtml
Rawalpindi, Islamabad - An attack on a political rally killed the
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto near the capital,
Islamabad, Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon at close
range before the blast, and an official from her party said Ms. Bhutto
was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a
suicide attacker.
Ms. Bhutto was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in
Rawalpindi at 6:16 p.m. after the doctors had tried to resuscitate her
for thirty-five minutes. She had shrapnel injuries, the doctors said.
At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.
"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Ms.
Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was
taken after the attack, according to The Associated Press.Hundreds of
supporters had gathered at the political rally, which was being held
at Liaqut Bagh, a park that is a common venue for political rallies
and speeches, in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to the capital.
Amid the confusion after the explosion, the site was littered with
pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the
asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground. Pakistani
television cameras captured images of ambulances pushing through
crowds of dazed and injured people at the scene of the assassination.
CNN reported that witnesses at the scene described the assassin as
opening fire on Ms. Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least
once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up.
Farah Ispahani, a party official from Ms. Bhutto's party, said:
"It is too soon to confirm the number of dead from the party's side.
Private television channels are reporting twenty dead." Television
channels were also quoting police sources as saying that at least 14
people were dead.
At the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was taken, a large number of
police began to cordon off the area as angry party workers smashed
windows. Many protesters shouted "Musharraf Dog". One man was crying
hysterically, saying "O my sister has been killed." Amid the crowd,
dozens of people beat their chests, and chanted slogans against Mr.
Musharraf.
The attack immediately raised questions about whether
parliamentary elections scheduled for January will go ahead or be
postponed.
Ms. Bhutto was the target of a suicide attack in October in
Karachi when she returned from exile to Pakistan. That attack, caused
by two bombs exploding just seconds apart, narrowly missed Ms. Bhutto
but killed scores of people, including many of her party workers. Ms.
Bhutto had been warned by the government before her return to Pakistan
that she faced threats to her security. She did not blame the
president, Pervez Musharraf, for the Karachi attack but said extremist
Islamic groups who wanted to take over the country were behind the
attacks, which killed 134 people.
The attack Thursday in Rawalpindi is the latest blow to Pakistan's
treacherous political situation. It comes just days after President
Pervez Musharraf lifted a state of emergency, imposed in part because
of terrorist threats.
Ms. Bhutto, 54, returned from self-imposed exile to Pakistan this
year to present herself as the answer to the nation's troubles: a
tribune of democracy in a state that has been under military rule for
eight years, and the leader of the country's largest opposition
political party, founded by her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, one of
Pakistan's most flamboyant and democratically inclined prime ministers.
But her record in power, and the dance of veils she has deftly
performed since her return -- one moment standing up to the Pakistan
president, General Musharraf, then next seeming to accommodate him,
and never quite revealing her actual intentions -- has stirred as much
distrust as hope among Pakistanis.
A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, she brought the backing of
Washington and London, where she impresses with her political lineage,
her considerable charm and her persona as a female Muslim leader.
But with these accomplishments, Ms. Bhutto also brought
controversy, and a legacy among Pakistanis as a polarizing figure who
during her two turbulent tenures as prime minister, first from 1988 to
1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, often acted imperiously and impulsively.
She faced deep questions about her personal probity in public
office, which led to corruption cases against her in Switzerland,
Spain and Britain, as well as in Pakistan.
Ms. Bhutto saw herself as the inheritor of her father's mantle,
often spoke of how he encouraged her to study the lives of legendary
female leaders ranging from Indira Gandhi to Joan of Arc.
Following the idea of big ambition, Ms. Bhutto called herself
chairperson for life of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, a
seemingly odd title in an organization based on democratic ideals and
one she has acknowledged quarreling over with her mother, Nusrat
Bhutto, in the early 1990s.
Saturday night at the diplomatic reception, Ms. Bhutto showed how
she could aggrandize. Three million people came out to greet her in
Karachi on her return last month, she said, calling it Pakistan's
"most historic" rally. In fact, crowd estimates were closer to
200,000, many of them provincial party members who had received small
amounts of money to make the trip.
Such flourishes led questioning in Pakistan about the strength of
her democratic ideals in practice, and a certain distrust,
particularly amid signs of back-room deal-making with General
Musharraf, the military ruler she opposed.
"She believes she is the chosen one, that she is the daughter of
Bhutto and everything else is secondary," said Feisal Naqvi, a
corporate lawyer in Lahore who knew Ms. Bhutto.
When Ms. Bhutto was re-elected to a second term as Prime Minister,
her style of government combined both the traditional and the modern,
said Zafar Rathore, a senior civil servant at the time.
But her view of the role of government differed little from the
classic notion in Pakistan that the state was the preserve of the
ruler who dished out favors to constituents and colleagues, he recalled.
As secretary of interior, responsible for the Pakistani police
force, Mr. Rathore, who is now retired, said he tried to get an
appointment with Ms. Bhutto to explain the need for accountability in
the force. He was always rebuffed, he said.
Finally, when he was seated next to her in a small meeting, he
said to her, "I've been waiting to see you," he recounted.
"Instantaneously, she said: 'I am very busy, what do you want. I'll
order it right now.' "
She could not understand that a civil servant might want to talk
about policies, he said. Instead, he said, "she understood that when
all civil servants have access to the sovereign, they want to ask for
something."
But until her death, Ms. Bhutto ruled the party with an iron hand,
jealously guarding her position, even while leading the party in
absentia for nearly a decade.
Members of her party saluted her return to Pakistan, saying she
was the best choice against General Musharraf. Chief among her
attributes, they said, was sheer determination.
Ms. Bhutto's marriage to Asif Ali Zardari was arranged by her
mother, a fact that Ms. Bhutto has often said was easily explained,
even for a modern, highly educated Pakistani woman.
To be acceptable to the Pakistani public as a politician she could
not be a single woman, and what was the difference, she would ask,
between such a marriage and computer dating?
Mr. Zardari is known for his love of polo and other perquisites of
the good life like fine clothes, expensive restaurants, homes in Dubai
and London, and an apartment in New York.
He was minister of investment in Ms. Bhutto's second government.
And it was from that perch that he made many of the deals that haunted
Ms. Bhutto, and himself, in the courts.
There were accusations that the couple had illegally taken $1.5
billion from the state. It is a figure that Ms. Bhutto has vigorously
contested.
Indeed, one of Ms. Bhutto's main objectives in seeking to return
to power was to restore the reputation of her husband, who was jailed
for eight years in Pakistan, said Abdullah Riar, a former senator in
the Pakistani Parliament and a former colleague of Ms. Bhutto's.
"She told me, 'Time will prove he is the Nelson Mandela of
Pakistan,' " Mr. Riar said.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Graham Bowley
from New York.
===
reader comment
Before I start writing anything , I would like to confirm
that I am against any and all political assassinations,
except for the confirmed-war-criminals who shall even need
a proper court condemnation....... previously.
Benazir Butho was assassinated hours ago
she is a hero for some.........and "a rich-and-powerful-corrupt-lady"
for the others.......
I know no details , but one or two facts I take into my consideration
in my judgement , what ever it is worth....
1- she inherited her power
2- she was awfully rich
3- she was accused of corruption and then even pardoned , later on
4- The USA never disapproved of her
Otherwise ,
I offer my condolences to her supporters and her family
what ever she was or not were.......
democracy or rather plurality has made one step backwards.
Raja Chemayel
PS :
most reporters are asking whether she died from bullets
or from that blast............but difference does it make ??
===
PAKISTAN: Benazir Bhutto – the ultimate sacrifice
by Beena Sarwar <bsarwar1 @ yahoo.co.uk>
www.montrealmuslimnews.net
LAHORE (Dec 27): Benazir Bhutto has paid the heaviest price possible
for her insistence on engaging in participatory, democratic politics
in Pakistan. Bhutto was killed on Thursday evening in what was
apparently a suicide bombing following gunshots that injured her as
she was leaving a pre-election rally she had just addressed in the
garrison town of Rawalpindi.
Twice-elected former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the 54-year old
mother of three children, died in hospital in Rawalpindi at about
6.15 pm – barely an hour after an unidentified man fired shots at
her as she left the rally venue, a fenced off park, before blowing
himself up. Some twenty others were killed and dozens more injured.
"She feared something like this would happen, but she was so brave,"
said PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, who was with Benazir Bhutto
at the rally minutes before the tragedy struck, speaking to IPS from
Rawalpindi shortly before Bhutto's body was transferred to her
hometown Larkana on a C-130 plane. "She waved at the people, and
then there was firing and the blast."
"I don't think people realize this, but she was one of the last
hopes we had in Pakistan for a peaceful transition to democracy,"
said Karachi-based economist Haris Gazdar, who supported Bhutto's
much-criticised `deal' with the military government that allowed her
to return to the country and participate in politics.
President and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf's
National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) promulgated on Oct. 5, a day
before the presidential elections that he was a nominee for despite
being in military uniform, gave Bhutto immunity against corruption
charges brought against her after she was ousted from power in 1996
(none of these charges were proved in court). In return, her
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) lent the election legitimacy by
abstaining from the vote – the rest of the opposition boycotted the
proceedings.
Explaining his support for Bhutto, Gazdar added, "The Americans
think we are a dangerous state, and they want to come and sort
things out here. This was a chance to do this peacefully… Make no
mistake about it, the state is responsible for her death. They may
think that by removing the vehicle for a peaceful change, they can
stop the change. But that will not happen. Now that the peaceful
mediator has been killed, they (Americans) will use armed force."
"I was nine when ZAB was killed by a General. Now my son is nine and
another general has killed his daughter. I grew up with Benazir.
It's a personal loss. I want to cry forever," text-messaged a lawyer
in Lahore. The military regime of General Ziaul Haq overthrew and
later executed the democratically elected prime minister Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto (ZAB), Benazir's father, in 1979.
News of the tragic incident ignited violence all over the country,
particularly in Sindh, Bhutto's home province. "They've shut down
all the shops, and there is firing all around," said Abdul Jabbar
who works as a driver in the Sindh capital and Pakistan's largest
city and business center Karachi. "People are just overcome with
grief."
By 9 pm, violence had claimed at least five lives in Karachi.
Protestors in Sindh evacuated two trains and set them on fire. Angry
mobs attacked police stations and other symbols of state authority.
Commuters were reported to be stranded in towns and cities all over
the province.
Benazir Bhutto had chosen to return to Pakistan after almost nine
years of exile, leaving a comfortable life of exile in London and
Dubai, defying warnings by Musharraf to delay her arrival due to the
danger of suicide attacks.
"This is why I am here," she said, radiant atop her armoured truck
soon after her arrival from Dubai at Karachi on Oct 18. Waving to
the sea of people that surrounded her truck as far as the eye could
see, she added as thousands of arms rose in response, "These people
are the reason I am here."
Hours later, her slow-moving convoy bogged down by thousands of
exuberant supporters on foot had only covered a few kilometers when
two bombs struck soon after midnight. Initially thought to be a
suicide attack, the blasts claimed over 130 lives and 500 injuries.
Addressing a press conference the following day, a defiant Bhutto
implied the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in the
attacks by mentioning three anonymous men whom she said she had
named in a letter of Oct 16 to Musharraf. "I said that if something
happens to me, I will hold them responsible rather than militant
groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda or the Pakistani Taliban."
The PPP also demanded the removal of the Intelligence Bureau chief,
Ijaz Shah, hinting at Pakistani intelligence agencies' linkage with
militancy. Bhutto's later claim that the Oct 18 blasts were remote-
controlled further implied the involvement of forces other than
the `religious militants' who are traditionally held responsible for
such acts.
Despite the threats, Bhutto hit the campaign trail after the
Election Commission announced on Nov 20 that polls would be held on
January 8, 2008. With elections barely two weeks away, Bhutto was
engaged in a series of public rallies around the country.
Also on the campaign trail was her major political rival, another
twice-elected former prime minster who like Bhutto had recently
returned from several years of exile, Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Despite their political rivalry, the
two leaders had developed what Sharif termed as a "rapport" over the
last couple of years. In May 2006, the two exiled leaders in London
signed a Charter of Democracy aimed at pushing the military out of
Pakistani politics.
Speaking to the media from the hospital in Rawalpindi where he
arrived soon after hearing of the incident, Bhutto's death, Sharif
termed it as "very tragic". He said that the tragedy reflected
a "lapse in security" and said that the government should have taken
greater measures to protect her.
As they embarked on their election campaigns, the two leaders drew
huge crowds marked by a passion that the `kings' party', the
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) was unable to muster. The
campaigning was also marked by violence. Several political workers,
mostly PPP, died in various incidents. On Dec 20, a suicide bomb in
a mosque in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) killed over 20
people and injured 200 in an attack apparently aimed at former PPP
stalwart and ex-interior minister Aftab Sherpao. On Dec 27, barely
three hours before the blast that killed Bhutto, gunfire killed four
PML-N supporters in a welcome rally for Nawaz Sharif outside the
capital city Islamabad.
Bhutto's decision to contest elections "under protest" went against
the move to boycott the polls, initiated by `civil society' --
lawyers, students, human rights activists, non-government
organisations and the smaller political parties – who argued that
participating in the elections would only legitimize Musharraf's
role in Pakistani politics. Bhutto maintained that a boycott would
not solve anything. Her stand forced Sharif to reconsider his
initial position and announce that his party would contest rather
than boycotting the polls.
The participation of these political forces posed a major challenge
to the PML-Q which ruled the roost along with Musharraf for five
years since the 2002 general elections – that Bhutto and Sharif had
both been barred from contesting. Democratic electoral politics were
also expected to push back the `jihadists', the right-wing religious
parties who had joined hands as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)
and made significant electoral inroads during the 2002 elections.
MMA was also weakened by internal divisions as some of its
components were in the boycott camp while others were contesting
elections.
Bhutto's assassination "sends a very frightening signal to those who
aim to pursue liberal politics in Pakistan," commented Ali Dayan
Hasan, Pakistan-based South Asia Researcher for Human Rights
Watch. "This will leave a huge vacuum at the heard of Pakistani
politics. It is the most significant political event to happen in
Pakistan since the death of General Zia." Gen. Zia's death in 1988
had paved the way for fresh elections that brought Benazir Bhutto
into power as the world's first Muslim woman prime minister.
Condoling with Bhutto's family and other affected people in a brief,
televised address, President Musharraf announced a three-day
mourning period during which the Pakistani flag will be flown at
half-mast.
"It is important now for Asif Ali Zardari (Bhutto's husband) to call
for peace, and to give Benazir Bhutto a decent burial that she
deserves," said Nusrat Javeed, the banned head of current affairs
for Aaj Television who appeared in a special transmission along with
another banned host, Talat Hussain. "We need to sit and think, and
transform the grief and the anger into strength."
*********************************************************************
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