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BREAKING NEWS: Pakistani Leader Benazir Bhutto Killed In Suicide-Bomb Attack
By Yoji Cole
December 27, 2007
A gun attack and suicide bomb in Islamabad, Pakistan, killed the country's courageous opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Witnesses said Bhutto was injured before the blast by gunfire and then further injured by the explosion, which was caused by a suicide attacker, reports The New York Times.
The blast also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official told MSNBC. Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, was 54. At age 35, She was the first Muslim female prime minister to be elected democratically. Who was Benazir Bhutto?
"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack, reports MSNBC.
"She has been martyred," added party official Rehman Malik.
Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle; then the gunman blew himself up, said a party security adviser, reports MSNBC.
The Bhutto name is popular in Pakistan. Her father was prime minister in the 1970s. Benazir Bhutto became prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996--the first female leader of a Muslim country, according to The Oxford University Press.
Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was ejected as prime minister in 1975 and sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy. He was hanged in 1979. Two of her brothers were killed in 1980 and 1996, respectively, yet Bhutto, knowing she could suffer the same fate, charged on, helping repeal laws in the country that discriminated against women.
Hundreds of supporters had gathered at the rally held at Liaqut Bagh, a park that is a common venue for political rallies and speeches. After the explosion, the park was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers lay on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground, reports The New York Times.
Bhutto's supporters gathered at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit while others burst into tears, reports The New York Times.
The attack immediately raised questions about whether parliamentary elections scheduled for January will go ahead or if Musharraf will again declare military law and postpone the elections.
Pakistan is a vital partner in the war on terrorism. The Bush administration wants to see stabilization in Pakistan. Instability in that country creates a vacuum of leadership that can be filled by terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, CNN's correspondent Barbara Starr reported this morning.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, spoke to CNN about Musharraf and the nation's response.
"[Bhutto's assassination] is a national tragedy and day of national mourning for Pakistan," Durrani told CNN. "[Musharraf] calls this a national loss and said he will declare some kind of national mourning."
Durrani said Bhutto's assassination should not prevent the country from instituting further democratic reforms. He added that her assassination is not an indication that the military has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda. Durrani told CNN that the Pakistani military has been fighting in the country's tribal areas where anti-government groups thrive and has reported no defections.
"I'm sure [the government] would like elections to move forward," said Durrani. "Now everybody has to work together for elections to move forward. Pakistan is used to crisis and we move on in spite of crisis."
(See also: New York Lawyers Denounce Martial Law in Pakistan)
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