Bhutto assassinated
· Shot twice, then bomb exploded
· Riots across country
· Fears over election
Declan Walsh in Karachi
Friday December 28, 2007
The Guardian
Angry scenes were replicated in cities across Pakistan, where enraged supporters rioted in the streets, burned trains and businesses, and attacked policemen. Gunfire rang out on the streets of Karachi, the port city where Bhutto spent much of her life.
Two months after her triumphant return from exile, a lone gunman fired several shots at Bhutto as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi, hitting her in the neck and chest. Seconds later a fireball caused by a suicide bomb engulfed her vehicle and killed at least 20 supporters.
The former prime minister was rushed to a nearby hospital where distraught supporters burst through doors, smashed windows and tried to storm into the operating theatre where surgeons struggled to save her life. She was proclaimed dead shortly afterwards.
Initial suspicions for the attack fell on the Islamist militants who had previously threatened to kill the 54-year-old scion of Pakistan's greatest political dynasty. In October Bhutto survived a massive suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 140 people.
But angry accusations were also flung at fundamentalist sympathisers within Pakistan's military apparatus, who Bhutto had earlier claimed wanted to see her dead.
The assassination is the climax of an extraordinary series of crises to have rocked Pakistan over the past nine months as President Pervez Musharraf sought to consolidate his grip on power.
The last comparable convulsion was the war that led to the secession of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971.
In a brief televised address Musharraf declared three days of mourning. "This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
The ramifications are likely to be immediate and grave. Analysts said Musharraf may seize on the turmoil to postpone the January polls and possibly reimpose the emergency rule he established on November 3 but lifted shortly before Christmas.
The UN security council called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in the nuclear-armed country, which has seen sieges, suicide bombings, high political drama and a worrying surge in Islamist violence over the past 12 months.
Alarmed western leaders mixed condemnation and tributes with calls for restraint and a continuation of Pakistan's fragile political process. Gordon Brown hailed Bhutto as "a woman of immense personal courage and bravery".
The prime minister said: "She risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto may have been killed by terrorists, but the terrorists must not be allowed to kill democracy in Pakistan."
A sombre President George Bush, speaking near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, condemned the killing as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy". He called on Pakistanis to "honour Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process".
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said the subcontinent had "lost an outstanding leader". The Italian premier, Romano Prodi, called her "a woman who chose to fight her battle until the end".
Bhutto's violent death echoed that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prime minister deposed by a military dictator in 1977 and hanged two years later. Her two brothers were killed in murky circumstances in the following years.
Bhutto was attacked as she left Liaqat Bagh, a public park in Rawalpindi where she addressed thousands of supporters at an election rally yesterday afternoon.
Officials said she was driving out of the park, standing inside her bulletproof vehicle and waving to supporters, with the top half of her body protruding from the sunroof, when the killer struck.
Several gunshots rang out and Bhutto crumpled into the jeep. Seconds later a huge blast rocked the vehicle, showering it with shrapnel. Rescuers found Bhutto lying in pool of blood on the back seat.
Senior party official Amin Fahim, who had been sitting beside her, said he heard "between three and five shots". Sherry Rehman, who was travelling in the vehicle behind, said: "She fell back into the vehicle and everything was splattered with blood. I don't even know if she made it alive to the hospital."
Some said Bhutto had been shot before the blast. Amir Qureshi, a bodyguard from Bhutto's youth wing who had been jogging alongside her car, said he heard two volleys of gunshots.
She was shot first in the neck, then in the head, he said, speaking to the Guardian from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for leg wounds. "This is a black day not only for Pakistan but also the rest of the world," he said.
There were chaotic scenes of anger and grief at the Rawalpindi hospital where an unconscious Bhutto received emergency treatment. Thousands of supporters crushed through glass doors; some tried to break into the operating room. Outside some men wept and crumpled to the ground, others yelled "Musharraf is a murderer" or "Long Live Bhutto".
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, also recently returned from exile, rushed to the hospital where he sat by Bhutto's body. "Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said later, his eyes at times filling with tears. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."
Earlier, a Sharif rally in Rawalpindi had come under fire from a gunman, who killed at least four people and wounded several more. Musharraf's PML-Q party denied accusations that its supporters were responsible. Sharif told the BBC: "I think perhaps none of us is inclined to take up the elections. We'll have to sit down and take a very serious look at the current situation."
The killing of Bhutto pushes Pakistan into uncharted waters, calling into question Musharraf's ability to rein in the Islamist militants who threaten to upend the country's uncertain stability.
Late last night Bhutto's body was moved to Chakala airbase, where it was due to be flown to her home province of Sindh; the governor there announced three days of mourning. In the coming days Bhutto will be buried near her ancestral home in Larkana, inside a huge mausoleum built in recent years to house her father and two brothers, the other ghosts of Pakistan's most cursed political dynasty.
Fatal hours
· Bhutto meets with visiting Afghan president Hamid Karzai at the end of his two-day visit
· Riot police man security checkpoints in Rawalpindi. Hundreds of people forced to pass through metal detectors and undergo body searches before entering the park where the Bhutto rally is to be held
· Bhutto arrives at park, leaves the podium and gets into her car
· She waves to supporters through the sunroof as the car makes its way through the crowds
· Two gunshots heard and Bhutto disappears into the car. She is shot in the head and neck
· Suicide bomber explodes a device, killing at least 20 other people
· Bhutto undergoes emergency operation at Rawalpindi general hospital
· Declared dead at 6.16pm local time
Additional reporting by Waqar Kiani
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