Source: BBC News
Benazir Bhutto was killed as she left a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, ahead of next month’s general election.
A BBC correspondent at the rally says Ms Bhutto got out of her car to wave to a group of supporters who were chanting slogans in her support near the main gate of the park where the rally had been held.
Eyewitnesses then report hearing three gunshots. At the same time, there was a loud explosion, apparently caused by a suicide bomber.
“The man first fired at Bhutto’s vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up,” police officer Mohammad Shahid said.
“I heard a blast. I rushed across to where so many people were lying injured and dead,” Sherzad Malik of the Urdu service told Newshour.
Ms Bhutto was taken to hospital, where it swiftly became clear that she was dead.
Officials say Ms Bhutto was shot in the head and chest, but it is not clear if the shots, the blast, or a combination killed her.
There were emotional scenes outside the hospital, with some people crying and hugging each other, and others shouting “Dog, Musharraf, dog” - a reference to the Pakistani president.
E-mail this article to a friend
Tags: Assasination, Benazir, Bhutto, eyewitness, rawalpindi, Suicide Attack
2 responses so far ↓
1 Laila // Dec 28, 2007 at 10:32 am
In a way, Benazir’s friends and party members are also included in those who killed her. Benazir behaved in a very childish manner. The same childishness of her’s took her life in the end. Nobody told her not to behave like that. Not even her husband or Sherry Rehman types. In fact as it happens in this world, that one is instead exploited for one’s weaknesses, as the outside powers did in her case, sending her to untimely death.
How come politicians in America do not behave in an immature way like they do in Pakistan. Hillary doesn’t yell and scream like Benazir did in her speeches; McCain doesn’t. Obama doesn’t.
What sort of a pattern do the Pak Politicians adopt? Why are they so erratic?
Here they are not quick to grasp the situation and change. Benazir still tried to copy her father’s style. So many of us knew what is about to happen to her, and it sure did happen. How come she did not know?
2 Rabeea // Dec 30, 2007 at 12:38 am
In reponse to Laila…
Politicians in Pakistan do not behave like those in America because our cultures, political values and mores are worlds apart. How many US politicians do you know who address crowds of thousands in the open air, and how many Pakistanis do you know who are literate enough to be convinced by soft and measured practised speeches. We are a nation of spontaneity. BB was a leader blessed with immense spontaneity.
I guess you are right that we all knew this was imminent. The truth is, she knew too. She met my brother in Washington DC just before returning to Pakistan, and he said she told him she wanted to be buried next to her father. Focus on her her speeches days/ weeks before Dec 27. You will figure…she knew. But she went ahead anyway.
Life is not just breathing and living… life transcends this mortal world. She will live forever, as does her father, in the spirits of us undaunted Pakistanis.
Leave a Comment