PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was k

[Flash]

PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi today, her party said.

"She has been martyred," party official Rehman Malik said.

Ms Bhutto, 54, died in hospital in Rawalpindi. Ary-One Television said she had been shot in the head.

Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," police officer Mohammad Shahid said.

Police said 16 people had been killed in the blast.

"It is the act of those who want to disintegrate Pakistan because she was symbol of unity. They have finished the Bhutto family. They are enemies of Pakistan," senior Bhutto party official Farzana Raja said.

A witness at the scene of the attack said he had heard two shots moments before the blast. Another witness saw bodies and a mutilated human head strewn on a road outside the park where she held her rally.

A spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he had to confirm the news before commenting. Earlier, party officials had said Ms Bhutto was safe.

A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack on Ms Bhutto on October 19 as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.

Islamist militants were blamed for that attack but Ms Bhutto had said she was prepared to face the danger to help the country.

People cried and hugged each other outside the hospital where she died and residents of Karachi, her home town, said they had heard gun shots after news of Ms Bhutto's death spread, apparently from her enraged supporters.

Ms Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Ms Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.

She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.

Ms Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.

Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she had said al-Qaida assassins tried to kill her several times in the 1990s.

Intelligence reports have said al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her.

[Flash]

admin said:

PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi today, her party said.

"She has been martyred," party official Rehman Malik said.

Ms Bhutto, 54, died in hospital in Rawalpindi. Ary-One Television said she had been shot in the head.

Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," police officer Mohammad Shahid said.

Police said 16 people had been killed in the blast.

"It is the act of those who want to disintegrate Pakistan because she was symbol of unity. They have finished the Bhutto family. They are enemies of Pakistan," senior Bhutto party official Farzana Raja said.

A witness at the scene of the attack said he had heard two shots moments before the blast. Another witness saw bodies and a mutilated human head strewn on a road outside the park where she held her rally.

A spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said he had to confirm the news before commenting. Earlier, party officials had said Ms Bhutto was safe.

A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack on Ms Bhutto on October 19 as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.

Islamist militants were blamed for that attack but Ms Bhutto had said she was prepared to face the danger to help the country.

People cried and hugged each other outside the hospital where she died and residents of Karachi, her home town, said they had heard gun shots after news of Ms Bhutto's death spread, apparently from her enraged supporters.

Ms Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Ms Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.

She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.

Ms Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.

Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she had said al-Qaida assassins tried to kill her several times in the 1990s.

Intelligence reports have said al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her
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Sent: 12/27/2007 2:39 PM
Earlier today, radical Islamist terrorists carried out a suicide bomb attack at a rally by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a gunman assassinated her. These attacks constituted an unmistakable attack against Pakistan’s moderate center. Earlier in the day, four people were murdered ahead of a rally by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. These events mark a watershed in a still rising radical Islamist revolution. In the wake of these attacks, it is clear that Pakistan is being Talibanized and is increasingly in danger of seeing its government toppled by radical Islamist elements.

Throughout the course of the year, Pakistan has been drifting steadily toward a decisive showdown with an evolving radical Islamist revolution. In fact, even after a period of emergency rule, several dynamics in Pakistan remain relatively unchanged from earlier this year when radicals attempted to leverage Islamabad’s Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) to foment a revolution by which Pakistan would put under Taliban-like Islamist rule. First, Pakistan’s moderate center, though arguably but not certainly a majority of the population, continues to shrink. Second, radical elements are increasing their attacks on leading moderates be they President Musharraf’s government or opposition leaders such as former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated today, or Nawaz Sharif in a continuing war of attrition against the moderate leadership class that forms the backbone of that nation’s governing society. Third, radical elements continue to target organs and personnel of state control, including the police and army. In short, Pakistan is in the midst of a low-level Islamist revolution not too much unlike that which preceded Ayatollah Khomenei’s dictatorship in Iran. Pakistan is not yet at the point where the success of a radical Islamist revolution is foreordained, but very difficult measures may well be required to preclude such an outcome.

In my opinion, in the near-term, President Musharraf is likely to reimpose tough restrictions on large gatherings and indefinitely postpone the upcoming January Parliamentary elections. Arrests of those who incite violence against the government are also likely. A number of Islamist parties could be barred from government. Even tougher emergency decrees targeting select Mosques and their Imams are possible.

There is still a small chance that President Musharraf would allow the election to go on as scheduled. However, given that the leading Opposition figure has been assassinated, arguments that the outcome would represent the will of Pakistan’s people had Ms. Bhutto been alive, would be weak. At the same time, inaction by President Musharraf would signal weakness and encourage the Islamist extremists to run even larger risks against what they would perceive as an eroding government. Furthermore, the radical Islamists see themselves in a life-and-death struggle against moderate society that they see as a barrier to the kind of harsh Islamist rule they seek to impose. Given the religious overtones of their pursuit of political power, they are not likely to compromise. Most definitely, the Islamists would not be inclined to negotiate away what they believe Pakistan’s government could not achieve through law enforcement and military means. Hence, I believe odds favor President Musharraf’s taking the former course.

If President Musharraf does, in fact, adopt a new period of emergency rule, it is in the U.S. national interest to fully support the embattled President and his moderate government. The risk of a nuclear armed state coming under the rule of Talibanist elements would substantially exacerbate U.S. national security risks and have a potentially far more damaging global impact that Iran’s Revolution had.

While some idealists within President Bush’s Administration are likely to oppose the emergency measures, President Musharraf still has a strong card to play that he held back during his earlier period of emergency rule: linking continued cooperation with the U.S. in its war on terrorism to U.S. support for his government against the radical elements that seek to topple it.

Foreign policy is a two-way street. There are no free lunches. No nation can reasonably be expected to serving another’s interests in the absence of reciprocity. Nations cooperate to pursue shared interests or address common risks. Each must have something to gain, if the relationship is to endure. If the U.S. is unwilling to offer President Musharraf full support at this critical juncture in Pakistan’s history, President Musharraf could make clear that he is no longer able to assist the U.S. with its ongoing war on radical Islamist terrorists. Instead, he could argue that his nation’s survival as a moderate state must take precedence over the objectives of his faraway critics whose criticism only weakens prospects for the survival of Pakistan’s moderate government and emboldens the extremist elements that seek to snuff out a moderate Pakistan.

Ultimately, when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, pragmatism will likely trump idealism. Whether the U.S. made decisions that promoted stability or encouraged chaos in a critical nuclear power will define the constraints under which U.S. decision making takes place. Confronted by the possibility of such a stark loss of Intelligence and military cooperation, not to mention the even worse scenario of Talibanist elements gaining control of a nuclear power and establishing an Iranian-style theocracy there, most rational policy makers would calculate that larger interests make it necessary for the U.S. to offer full support for President Musharraf. Hence, should President Musharraf declare emergency rule and cancel elections for an indefinite period of time, any U.S. criticism and intervention to bring an end to the emergency rule is likely to be far more muted than it was during the last episode. In short, the U.S. strategic interest against Pakistan’s coming under the control of Islamist extremists will outweigh any tactical disagreements concerning the reinstitution of harsh emergency rule in Pakistan.