Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, has been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi. There have been numerous attempts on the life of Benazir Bhutto ever since her return to Pakistan. The opposition leader was taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital after the attack, which came as she left the rally, but died shortly afterwards from her injuries.

Though initially reported being safe and unhurt, Benazir Bhutto was later confirmed dead when her husband told television reporters that his wife was “badly injured”. News reports says that the assassination took place when a gunman fired while a suicide bomber detonated as Bhutto was leaving the venue for the political party she – the Pakistan People’s Party – that took place today (27th Dec, 2007) at Rawalpindi. The suicide attack killed around 20 others, and witnesses said that bodies were scattered across Liaqat Bagh park where the rally had taken place. Some of the dead are thought to have been police officers.

On hearing the reports of the attack and the eventual death, supporters broke hospital’s glass doors, threw stones at cars, and reportedly chanted against Musharraf outside the hospital. Others attacked police, burned election campaign posters and tires. Some opposition groups said that the assassination could lead to civil war, and other commentators said that the upcoming elections will likely be postponed.

Demonstrations are widespread in Pakistan with the police using tear gas and batons to break angry demonstrators in Peshawar. Some protesters torched the billboards of Pervez Musharraf, firing in the air and screaming. Protests in Multan also had protesters burning tires and blocking traffic. Similar scenes were witnessed in Karachi, Bhutto’s hometown.

Earlier there were few assassination attempts on her life. En route to a rally in Karachi on 18 Oct 2007, two explosions occurred shortly after Bhutto had landed and left Jinnah International Airport. She was not injured but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack, killed 136 people and injured at least 450. The dead included at least 50 of the security guards from her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who had formed a human chain around her truck to keep potential bombers away, as well as 6 police officers. A number of senior officials were injured. Bhutto was escorted unharmed from the scene.

Benazir Bhutto, born on 21st June 1953, was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state – Pakistan. She was elected twice as Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was sworn in for the first time in 1988 but removed from office 20 months later under orders of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993 Bhutto was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari.

Her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 by Pakistan’s then dictator, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. Two of her brothers were assassinated.

Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998, where she remained until she returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007, after reaching an understanding with General Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn.

UPDATES

28th Dec, 2007

An Al-Qaeda leader based in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto, whom he described as “the most precious American asset”. “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) ‘mujahadeen’,” Al-Qaeda Commander and spokesman Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told the Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location.

Al-Yazid was described by AKI as the “main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan”. It reported that the decision to kill Bhutto was made by al-Qaeda No. Two, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.