Benazir Bhuto murdered

[shereads]

Rest in peace. If there's any left.

 

[Liar]

Oh fuck.

 

[shereads]

Oh fuck.

Fuck, indeed.

Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack; supporters in uproar across Pakistan

10 minutes ago

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters, aides said.

The attack [occurred] shortly after Bhutto addressed the rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. There were conflicting accounts over the sequence of events.
Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser, said Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blew himself up.

Party supporter Chaudry Mohammed Nazir said that two gunshots rang out when Bhutto's vehicle pulled into the main street and then there was a big blast next to her car.

But Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told state-run Pakistan Television that Bhutto died when a suicide bomber struck her vehicle.
At least 20 others were killed in the blast, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery. "At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile South Asian nation.

Next to President Pervez Musharraf, Bhutto, 54, was the best known political figure in the country. She had served two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat the spread of Islamic extremism, a theme she returned to often in her campaign speeches.

Her death will leave a void at the top of her Pakistan People's party, the largest political group in the country.

As news of her death spread, supporters at the hospital in Rawalpindi smashed glass doors and stoned cars. Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing the president of complicity in her killing. Angry supporters took to the streets in the northwestern city of Peshawar as well other areas, chanting slogans against Musharraf. 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.
In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as supporters from Bhutto's party burned tires on the roads.

Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister and leader of a rival opposition party, rushed to the hospital and addressed the crowd.

"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," Sharif said. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."

Senator Babar Awan, Bhutto's lawyer, said, "The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred."

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 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," said Tahir Mahmood, 55, as she sobbed. "I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead," he said.

Some at the hospital began chanting, "Killer, Killer, Musharraf," referring to Musharraf, Bhutto's main political opponent.

"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to our requests," Malik said.

In Washington, deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally. It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy."
The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach some kind of political accommodation with the opposition, particular Bhutto, who is seen as having a wide base of support.

Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18. Her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Bhutto was killed just a few kilometres from the scene of her father's violent death 28 years earlier. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and the founder of the party that his daughter would later lead, was executed by hanging in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder that supporters said was politically motivated by the then-military regime. His killing led to violent protests across the country.

As Bhutto addressed the rally Thursday, she was flanked by a massive picture of her father.

Minutes later, the area was awash in blood.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene could see 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 rescue workers rushed to put victims in ambulances as people wailed nearby. The clothing of some of the victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies. Police caps and shoes littered the asphalt.

On Thursday, hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints to guard 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, a city near the capital where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army
has its headquarters.

Quotations from Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi:

"We have to modify our campaign to some extent because of the suicide bombings. We will continue to meet the public. We will not be deterred." - Shortly after narrowly escaping a suicide bombing in October on her return to Pakistan from an eight-year exile.

"I told him on my oath in his death cell, I would carry on his work." - Recalling a visit to her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, before his execution in 1979.

"The primary message of the visit and the talks will be that freedom has returned to Pakistan. It is not only a success for the people of Pakistan but for all those who believe in freedom." - Preparing for a visit to the United States in 1989, a few months after she first took office as prime minister.

"The voter has gotten more demanding. In 1988, the voters just wanted democracy. Our campaign was much more general then. Now we are more specific." - 1993 Associated Press interview on her ultimately successful bid for re-election. She had been ousted in 1990.

"I always said that I was innocent and a victim of a politically motivated trial." - Commenting in 2001 when her 1999 conviction on corruption charges was suspended and a new trial ordered.

"I haven't given myself away. I belong to myself and I always shall." - Vowing in 1987 that her arranged Islamic marriage to Karachi businessman Asif Ali Zardari would not upstage her political career.

"Democracy needs support and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. Democratic nations should ... come together in an association designed to help each other and promote what is a universal value - democracy." - 1989 speech at Harvard University.

 

[impressive]

 

[shereads]

delete

 

[English Lady]

Oh, so sad.

 

[Oblimo]

Oh, God damn it and fuck.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

She had class and courage.

We could be in for even rougher times over there.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Sorta reminds me of the return of Corizone Aquino's husband to the Phillipines. This is sort of the "down side" of political life in a third world country.

 

[rgraham666]

Sigh. The problem with evil is even a little goes a long way. Like a turd in a punchbowl even a tiny one ruins the whole thing.

I'm thinking the UN should be planning how to take Pakistan's nukes away from them. It will soon not be a place that should have any weapons sharper than a pointed stick.

 

[oggbashan]

The death of Benazir Bhutto is a disaster for Pakistan as well as a great loss to her family and supporters.

It will make life more difficult for all of those who wish Pakistan well, whether they support or oppose her political stance.

She was a courageous lady. She knew that her assassination was a real possibility once she returned to her country.

Og

 

[Pure]

shit.

pakistan's status as a fascist state on the US payroll is further solidified.

 

[Frank Noir]

Oh, God damn it and fuck.

My words exactly...

 

[shereads]

She was a courageous lady. She knew that her assassination was a real possibility once she returned to her country.

Og

I'm not psychic - not that you'd have to be in this case - but sometimes I simply "know" that something will or won't happen. When Bhutto returned to the political arena in Pakistan, I felt a lot of admiration but no hope for her future. This is upsetting but not surprising. The worst of it is, she'll be used as an excuse for the shedding of more blood - the very last thing she'd have wanted for her country. Already, she's being referred to as a martyr. How awful for her.

One of the things I most admired about her was that she entered into an Islamic marriage without compromising her stand against Islamic extremism. To critics of her marriage she said, "I haven't given myself away. I belong to myself and always will."

That she a wife, a mother, respectful of Islam, an independent thinker and a political leader, shouldn't be newsworthy, but is. Her family was proof that people can be of the Islamic faith and disregard what they find harmful there, just as is possible with Christianity. She was a person of courage, who refused to be defined by others.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/27/world/20071227BHUTTOLIFE_index.html

 

[dr_mabeuse]

It was almost inevitable, wasn't it? She was almost an invitation.

What a miserable, unhappy land.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Benazir Bhutto had really strong ties with the West. It's what pissed a lot of extremists off, and made her a target from the moment she set foot on Pakistani soil again.

A Welsh Assembly Member was with her when she escaped the first bomb a short while back. He questioned the 'protection' she was receiving, but nothing was done.

It's really, really sad.

 

[oggbashan]

It was almost inevitable, wasn't it? She was almost an invitation.

What a miserable, unhappy land.

It is easy to understand why many Pakistanis choose to live in the UK even if they sometimes get a hostile reception from our home-grown extremists.

Og

 

[Oblimo]

pakistan's status as a fascist state on the US payroll is further solidified.

But I can't imagine Musharraf being stupid enough to order this. Instead, I can see Musharraf being stupid enough to allowthis, or not have enough control to stop this, despite everything he's put in place. And believe me, that's worse.

 

[Belegon]

The "oh fuck" was my reaction as well...

This is horrible. I'm not surprised either, but that doesn't make it any less terrible.

 

[neonlyte]

I believed she showed courage and stupidity in equal measuring in returning to Pakistan. This election was never to be won by moderate Islamics and she has denied the moderates in Pakistan, and other parts of the Muslim world, a focal point and an interface with western democracies who need above all else to find a unifying force through whom an understanding of the route to cooperation. The inevitable voices have all been heard proclaiming terrorism will not be allowed to triumph over reason as if reason is enough to resolve a widening breech. Reason didn't save Bhutto and her courage is now laid bare for the zealots to pick clean.

R.I.P. -

 

[fieryjen]

 

[shereads]

But I can't imagine Musharraf being stupid enough to order this.

Nah. He didn't have to. All he had to do was sit back and watch.

Dr. M is right; she really was "almost an invitation." For a woman to presume to be elected president of a middle eastern state during the current climate was brave as hell, and had about the same chance as a snowball down there.

I try to think of a positive outcome from this, and look to the example of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. In the immediate aftermath, his murder inspired a lot of violence and hatred. But as history has played out, it's possible that King's legacy has had more impact because of his death.

Martyrdom is a terribly dangerous weapon in the hands of opportunists. But sometimes it takes a tragic shock to make a positive change.

Jesus. I'm just rambling now. I don't know what to think. I want to believe that this heroic woman's death will count for something, and that her memory and the anger inspired by her death won't be twisted into something ugly.

 

[Carnevil9]

It's really unfair that we, in the U.S., have so much, and they have so little. And now they have even less.

Let's send them Hillary as a gesture of goodwill.......Carney

 

[starrkers]

Oh fuck indeed.

 

[Lisa Denton]

There was a quote she made once which I remember, maybe while she was exiled, and I forget the exact words. I was also surprised she didn't jump the reporter and claw his eyes out. But she was asked a question, starered daggers at the reporter who asked, and after a moment answered to the effect of:

"No, I am not a liberal puppet of the west ..................... I am a Pakistani."

She had class.

She will be a martyr, for violence and bloodshed, but hopefully some of her views will be remembered along with the brutality and senselessness of her murder.

Perhaps others will carry on in her place, but of course that is probably just stupid idealism, kinda like what she stood for.

My first reaction was not "oh fuck" but more like "oh goddamn fuck no, no."

JMO