Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack.

[PopCulturePooka]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22979273-2,00.html

PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi today, her party said.

"She has been martyred," party official Rehman Malik said.

Mrs Bhutto, 54, died in hospital in Rawalpindi. Ary-One Television said she had been shot in the head.

Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Mrs Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," police officer Mohammad Shahid said.

Police said 16 people had been killed in the blast.

"It is the act of those who want to disintegrate Pakistan because she was symbol of unity. They have finished the Bhutto family. They are enemies of Pakistan," senior Bhutto party official Farzana Raja said.

Witnesses said they heard gunshots before fatal blast

A witness at the scene of the attack said he had heard two shots moments before the blast. Another witness saw bodies and a mutilated human head strewn on a road outside the park where she held her rally.

A spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he had to confirm the news before commenting. Earlier, party officials had said Mrs Bhutto was safe.

A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack on Mrs Bhutto on October 19 as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.

Islamist militants were blamed for that attack but Mrs Bhutto had said she was prepared to face the danger to help the country.

People cried and hugged each other outside the hospital where she died and residents of Karachi, her home town, said they had heard gun shots after news of Mrs Bhutto's death spread, apparently from her enraged supporters.

Mrs Bhutto, a hardened political campaigner in dangerous times

Mrs Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Mrs Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.

She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.

Mrs Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.

Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she had said al-Qaida assassins tried to kill her several times in the 1990s.

Intelligence reports have said al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her.


And what are the odds that the current dictatorship is ultimately behind this blatant act of anti democracy violence?

[RandomPasserby]

I would say that Musharraf isn't behind the attack, but might have let it slip past his forces, but the strike at least seems to have just cased Musharraf more trouble (I read about him having an emergency meeting because of this etc.).

[Kusoyaro]

Of course he was behind the attacks. Of course, knowing something and having proof on the matter are two different things. You realize that political assassination goes on all the time around the world, right RP? It's not like a fucking conspiracy, it's just that the common person will never be told of it.
Jesus.

This whole thing fucking sucks, you can bet your ass that the whole mid-east fiasco will be exacerbated by this guy.

[RandomPasserby]

Of course he was behind the attacks. Of course, knowing something and having proof on the matter are two different things. You realize that political assassination goes on all the time around the world, right RP? It's not like a fucking conspiracy, it's just that the common person will never be told of it.
Jesus.

This whole thing fucking sucks, you can bet your ass that the whole mid-east fiasco will be exacerbated by this guy.
Kusoyaro, are you saying that it wasn't a political assassination if "al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her." was true?
I'm just saying that there is a bunch of groups that can swat two flies with one strike (suicide bombers have gone after Musharraf too) while Musharraf swats only one fly and risks the stability of his country. Anyway if it was "political", I would guess Nawaz Sharif has more to gain than Musharraf. Kill one, blame the other and use the anger to take over the country.

Anyway currently it is believed to be done by extremists like the earlier suicide bomber attack.

[Kusoyaro]

Kusoyaro, are you saying that it wasn't a political assassination if "al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her." was true?
I'm just saying that there is a bunch of groups that can swat two flies with one strike (suicide bombers have gone after Musharraf too) while Musharraf swats only one fly and risks the stability of his country. Anyway if it was "political", I would guess Nawaz Sharif has more to gain than Musharraf. Kill one, blame the other and use the anger to take over the country.
Anyway currently it is believed to be done by extremists like the earlier suicide bomber attack.

Certainly there were numerous attacks on her life by such militants. And while Sharif does indeed seem to have more to gain, her death will not allow him to retake control. If anything, Musharraf's recent defrocking and Butto's death will all but guarantee that he never take power again. And it does not necessarily follow that whoever had the most to gain would be the one who did the deed. She was a pain for Musharraf, who went to great pains to appease the world stage, while giving his countrymen no grounds on which to fight him politically or with the law.
Also, take into consideration that she was the instigator of the judicial inquiry which was currently underway regarding Musharraf and his allies. Her death would mean that the inquiry would be dissolved. I'm not that caught up on this aspect, I'll look into it.

[RandomPasserby]

Heh, I don't suspect Sharif either, just wanted to point out that there are many others who can use this assassination to get Musharraf by sacking Bhutto's supporters on Musharraf. He is as assassination proof as a man can be in Pakistan, so a coup, a civil war or a revolution is need to get him.

[Karthak]

I doubt it was Musharraf who was behind this. If I had to guess then I'd say religious fanatics.

[Random]

So it turns out she wasn't hit by the gunman at all, but knocked her head on the car's sunroof, fracturing her skull and leading to her death.

[Kusoyaro]

the car was a musharrif spy

[Roxie]

"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone -- nobody else. Responsibility is hers," the former general told CBS' "60 Minutes."
Apparently President Pervez Musharraf thinks that the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto' was her own fault (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/pakistan.bhutto.musharraf/index.html?eref=rss_latest). Seriously.


Musharraf: Bhutto to blame for her assassination

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination was her own fault, the country's president, Pervez Musharraf, said in an interview that aired Sunday on U.S. television.

"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone -- nobody else. Responsibility is hers," the former general told CBS' "60 Minutes."

Bhutto was killed December 27 in Rawalpindi, south of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, while she was standing in an armored moving car after rallying supporters for now-postponed parliamentary elections. Her head was above the roof and unprotected at the time of the attack.

The cause of her death is not clear: a bomber blew himself up near Bhutto's limousine and videotape showed a gunman present, though no autopsy has been carried out.

Asked if Bhutto could have been shot, Musharraf said, "Yes, absolutely, yes. Possibility." He has said he welcomes an international investigation.

Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, rejected criticism that his government did not do enough to provide security to Bhutto, who was seeking to regain the post of prime minister. He noted that she had already survived one assassination attempt and "was given more security than any other person."

Asked about the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, widely rumored to be in the remote border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Musharraf said, "There is no proof whatsoever that he's here. We are not particularly looking for him, but we are operating against this -- and al Qaeda and militant Taliban. And in the process, obviously, it is combined. Maybe we are looking for him also."

And Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that, "If we knew where he was, we would have taken him out."

Durrani added that Musharraf's comment about "not specifically looking for Osama" means that the Pakistani military is "totally focused on destroying al Qaeda and the Taliban network and not just one person."

About Bhutto's death, he noted only that the investigation is not completed "and we should not jump to conclusions."

Still, he added, "if she had not come out of the vehicle, the protected and armored vehicle, maybe we would have seen her smiling face again today."

Though Musharraf's popularity at home has plummeted, he retains support from GOP presidential contender Sen. John McCain.

"I think he's a good man," the Arizonan told NBC's "Meet the Press." "But I think he's made mistakes, don't get me wrong. And we've got to move forward with these elections and have them free and fair.

"But I can work with him. He understands the threat to his country that the Taliban and al Qaeda present. And radical Islamic extremists. He's a very smart man. He'd be one of the first to go. They've tried to kill him nine times, OK? Nine times they've tried to kill Musharraf. He's not their favorite guy."

The New York Times reported Sunday that the Bush administration is considering expanding covert operations in the western part of Pakistan to shore up support for Musharraf's government and to find bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson of New Mexico told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that, though he had not heard details of the plan, "it sounds like a strategy that makes sense."

He added, "We have got to take whatever action is needed."

Richardson has called for Musharraf to step down and has called for free and fair elections.

"What we need to do is ask Musharraf, push him, push him to step aside for the good of the country, because he is widely unpopular," he told CNN.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate from New York, said Saturday that she would try to persuade Musharraf to share the responsibility for safeguarding his country's nuclear weapons with a delegation from the United States and perhaps Great Britain.

Meanwhile, detectives from Britain's Scotland Yard Saturday examined the scene where Bhutto was assassinated.

CNN cameraman Phil Littleton said the British counter-terrorism officers spent more than two hours at the public park at Liaqat Bath in Rawalpindi. They also visited the site where Bhutto held a rally just prior to her killing.

The team of five detectives arrived in Pakistan Friday after Musharraf agreed they should work alongside Pakistani agencies to determine how Bhutto was killed and who was responsible for her death.

The Pakistan interior ministry say the former leader died when she hit her head on the lever of her car's sunroof after ducking for cover after a suicide bomb attack on her convoy.

However, supporters of Bhutto insist she was shot prior to the explosion -- a view that some say is supported by video footage of the moments before the blast.

In Rawalpindi, police commandos blocked off the road while the British investigators were walked around the scene by Pakistani police, Littleton said.

He said the detectives took photographs and climbed onto a building that overlooked the site of the rally and assassination.

The investigators also spoke with members of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) at a makeshift shrine positioned on the side of the road where the killing took place, he added. They departed the scene under heavy police escort.

Asif Ali Zardari, who has stepped in to lead the PPP, has called for a United Nations inquiry into his late wife's assassination.

Musharraf said Wednesday that he expected the Scotland Yard investigators to help "solve all the confusion" surrounding the case.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/pakistan.bhutto.musharraf/index.html?eref=rss_latest#cnnSTCText

[Plekto]

Pretty standard fare, unfortunately.

Corrupt leader offs his opposition and then makes it look like opposition forces/terrorists/guerrillas/whatnot.

Yes, she was shot first and then the bomb went off. He's not fooling anyone at this point, which is why you get even Obama saying that he's willing to go in and clean up the mess. Officially to get terrorists, but he's looking straight at Musharraf when he says it - it's not hard to read between the lines here.

[Beowulf]

Technically it was her fault that she died. If she hadn't been an agent of progress and change then she wouldn't have been targeted by fascist dictators.