CNN, December 27

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was targeted in a deadly suicide bombing Thursday. Media reports quote her husband saying she suffered a bullet wound to the neck in the attack.

The attack has left at least 14 dead and 40 injured, Tariq Azim Khan, the country's former information minister, told CNN in a telephone interview.

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari told CNN affiliate Geo TV that his wife was shot in the neck in the attack.

The attacker is said to have detonated a bomb as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said.

Bhutto is said to have been leaving the rally when the attack occurred and was taken to a hospital in an unconcious state, the Geo TV report said.

UPDATE: NEW: Former PM Benazir Bhutto dead after attack, her husband tells Geo TV

The Times (London), by Zahid Hussain & Jenny Booth, December 27

Islamabad - Benazir Bhutto, a former Pakistan prime minister and opposition leader, has died after a suicide bombing attack on her political rally, the Interior Ministry said today.

Islamic militants have vowed to kill Ms Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan in October. Today's bombing is the second major attack on her since her return.

A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people on October 18 as Ms Bhutto paraded through the southern city of Karachi after returning home from eight years in self-imposed exile.

The latest bombing was the second outbreak of political violence in Pakistan today. Earlier, gunmen opened fire on supporters of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, from an office of the party that supports President Pervez Musharraf, killing four Sharif supporters, police said.

AP, December 27

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said.

"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.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

Her supporters 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, others burst into tears.

Reuters, December 27

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

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

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,” said police officer Mohammad Shahid. Police said 16 people had been killed in the blast.

Earlier, party officials said Bhutto was safe. A Reuters witness said he saw bodies on a road as well as a mutilated human head. A suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack on Bhutto on Oct. 18 as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi after returning home from eight years in self-imposed exile.

[...]

The shooting occurred near an office of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q).

"Somebody from inside the election office opened fire," said senior police official Shahid Nadeem Baloch.

"But I can't say they were Q people," he said, referring to the pro-Musharraf party. "It's an election office and lots of people sit there during election time."

Its just a feeling, but I sense this may be the first in a string of political assassinations to come over the next few years.

Benazir Bhutto assassinated

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, doctors, a spokesman for her party and other officials said.
art.bhutto.jpg

Bhutto suffered bullet wounds in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks were reporting.

Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets as a shocked Pakistan absorbed the news of Bhutto's assassination.

Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle to leave the rally.

Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital -- less than two miles from the bombing scene -- where doctors pronounced her dead. Video Watch aftermath of the attack. »

Former Pakistan government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan said while it appeared Bhutto was shot, it was unclear if the bullet wounds to her head and neck were caused by a shooting or if it was shrapnel from the bomb. Video Watch Benazir Bhutto obituary. »

The bomber detonated as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said. Read about Bhutto's turbulent history.

The number of wounded was not immediately known. However, video of the scene showed ambulances lined up to take many to hospitals.

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http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/pakistan.sharif/?iref=hpmostpop

Benazir Bhutto shot dead at suicide bombing of rally; 20 feared dead

5 minutes ago

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died Thursday after being shot during a suicide bomb attack on a political rally, party aides said.

Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser, said she was shot in the neck and chest in Rawalpindi.

The gunman reportedly shot Bhutto as she was getting into her vehicle, then blew himself up.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to our requests," Malik said.

Senator Babar Awan, Bhutto's lawyer, said, "The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred."

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president.

Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Pakistan People's party tied around his head was beating his chest.

At least 20 others were killed in a blast that took place as Bhutto left a political rally where she addressed thousands of supporters to canvas votes for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18.

Her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMb1loHZGB66_sDe0r78rgKiE5kQ

Benazir Bhutto assassinated

Sheela Bhatt | December 27, 2007 | 19:02 IST

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday when gunmen opened fire at her vehicle just before a suicide bomber blew himself up at an election rally in Rawalpindi, killing more than 20 people and injuring several others.

Reports said five bullets were fired at Bhutto, one of which pierced her neck. The 54-year-old leader of the Pakistan People's Party was rushed to the Rawalpindi general hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

According to rediff.com columnist Hamid Mir, "Benazir was shot at by a sniper rifle from close range and a few moments later a suicide bomber created the blast to make sure that she is assassinated. It was a determined effort. They made sure she doesn't survive the attack. She died due to the injury in her neck. I was told about it by injured party leader Ibne Rizvi before he went into comma."

"She expired at 6:16 pm," said Wasif Ali Khan, a PPP member at the hospital.

She is survived by her husband Asif Ali Zardari and three children.

Bhutto was shot as she was getting into the car after addressing thousands of supporters to canvass votes for the January 8 parliamentary election.

Before her supporters realised what had happened, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the rally at the Liaquat Bagh Park.

Several people, who were around her car, were blown to pieces. A television reporter at the scene said the suicide bomber's head was found almost 70 feet from the site of the blast.

Eyewitnesses said body parts were strewn across the area. Ambulances rushed the injured from the spot to nearby hospitals.

Mir said, "Yesterday, I had chatted with her. She was told many times that she carries as much risk as (Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf. On October 15, (army chief) General Ashraf Kayani and the director general ISI met her in Dubai. They clearly told her that there are forces determined to assassinate her. She thought they were trying to deter her from coming back to Pakistan. I found she was overconfident."

Added Mir, "Her partymen forced her to take risks. They were dragging her from one constituency to other. The threat to her life was so clearly understood by everybody. It was like the writing on the wall."

Additional Reportage: PTI

URL for this article:
http://www.rediff.com//news/2007/dec/27pakemergency1.htm

Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan

3 hours ago

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on Thursday, just two months after the former premier returned from exile for a political comeback.

Bhutto, a two-time former prime minister, had just addressed a campaign rally for next month's parliamentary elections when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the venue, killing her and at least 10 other people.

There were unconfirmed reports that the attacker had also opened fire on her with a weapon before the explosion.

"It may have been pellets packed into the suicide bomber's vest that hit her," interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told AFP.

It was the second suicide attack at a Bhutto event since she had returned from exile in October, aiming to contest the elections, and comes amid an unprecedented wave of violence in the country.

The deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history targetted her homecoming rally just hours after her return, leaving 139 people dead.

After that attack, authorities repeatedly warned her they had information that Islamic militants were trying to killer her.

Government officials said President Pervez Musharraf had been privately told of her death.

The killing will deepen the political crisis in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt the vote and Musharraf's opponents -- including Bhutto -- accused him of planning to rig the result.

more

Following the tragic news, Karachi appears to be in a grip of unprecedented panic right now. There is obvious panic and everyone is shocked. As the offices get closed down, people are rushing to their homes in anticipation of protests.

metroblogging karachi ~ more in comments

Pakistan police tear gas protest after Bhutto killed PESHAWAR,

Pakistan, Dec 27 (AFP) - Pakistan police used tear gas and batons to break up an angry demonstration Thursday in the city of Peshawar after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, an AFP reporter on the scene said. (Posted @ 19:46 PST)

http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/27/benazirbhutto.htm

http://pakspectator.blogspot.com/

Benazir Bhutto at the rally on 27 December 2007

Benazir Bhutto had been addressing rallies in many parts of Pakistan
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack.

Ms Bhutto had just addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi when gunfire and an explosion occurred.

At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured.

President Pervez Musharraf and his government called on people to remain calm so that the "nefarious designs of terrorists can be defeated."

Ms Bhutto had twice been the country's prime minister and had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January.

Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister and a political rival, told the BBC her death was a tragedy for "the entire nation".

"I can't tell you what the feelings of the people of Pakistan are today," he told BBC News 24 after returning from the hospital where she was brought.

It was the second suicide attack against Benazir Bhutto in recent months and comes amid a wave of bombings targeting security and government officials.

Map

Ms Bhutto's death has plunged her party into confusion and raised questions about whether January elections will go ahead as planned, the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says.

The PPP has the largest support of any party in the country.
.
Analysts note that Rawalpindi, the nerve centre of Pakistan's military, is seen as one of the country's most secure cities, making the attack even more embarrassing for the government of Gen Musharraf.

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Anti-Bhutto army factions behind murder?

B Raman | December 27, 2007 | 21:28 IST

The shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi on December 27, is likely to have been the outcome of a conspiracy involving anti-US, pro-Al Qaeda jihadi elements, Zia-ul Haq loyalists, junior members of the Pakistan army and, possibly, the Pakistan air force.

*
Bhutto assassinated: Complete coverage

Since 2003, there have been a number of terrorist incidents in Rawalpindi -- including two attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, the firing of rockets by unidentified elements from a park last year, the attempt to fire at Musharraf's plane from the terrace of a building with an anti-aircraft gun earlier this year, two suicide attacks at the army's general headquarters and two outside the offices of the Inter-Services Intelligence after the commando raid into Islamabad's Lal Masjid in July.

The two attempts to kill Musharraf were found to have been the result of a conspiracy involving Al Qaeda (Abu Faraj al-Libi, now in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre), the Jaish-e-Mohammad and junior officers of the Pakistan army and air force. In other incidents too, involvement of junior officers of the Pakistan army and air force was suspected.

In connection with the rocket attacks, the son of a retired brigadier was arrested. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US, was arrested in the Rawalpindi house of a woman office-bearer of the Jamaat-e-Islami, having a relative in a regiment of the army.

All these incidents indicated a strong penetration of Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organisations into the lower and middle levels of the armed forces personnel stationed in Rawalpindi. Rashid Rauf, a Mirpuri resident, who was a prime suspect in the case involving an Al Qaeda attempt to blow up 10 US bound planes in the UK last year, escaped last week while being taken from a court in Rawalpindi to his jail. Complicity of security personnel in his escape was suspected.

Neither the Inter Services Intelligence nor the Intelligence Bureau nor the police had been able to thoroughly investigate these cases and establish the identities of those involved. Only the identities of the junior officers involved in the attempts to kill Musharraf were established. They were arrested and court-martialled. But the authorities were not able to establish the extent to which Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements had penetrated into the Pakistan armed forces.

Since Benazir returned from exile on October 18, Zia loyalists in the Pakistan government and among the retired officers of the Pakistan army and ISI conducted a bitter campaign against her. They were determined to see that she did not return to power in the elections scheduled on January 8.

Benazir herself was worried that Brigadier Ijaz Shah (retd), director, IB, was ill-disposed towards her and had repeatedly complained in public that there could be a threat to her security from the IB.

All the jihadi organisations were opposed to her coming to power firstly because she was a woman and, secondly, because of her statements that she would allow US troops to hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory and let the International Atomic Energy Agency interrogate nuclear scientist A Q Khan.

As recently as December 26, after her visit to Peshawar where there were some explosions coinciding with her visit, she had expressed dissatisfaction with her security arrangements. She complained that the electronic jammers issued to her staff for protection against remote-control devices were faulty.

Her repeated pleas to seek the help of Western intelligence agencies for an investigation into the blast at Karachi on October 18, where she narrowly escaped, and to let her hire private security guards from the West, were turned down by Musharraf.

There is likely to be widespread anti-Musharraf and anti-army disturbances in Sindh and possibly southern Punjab, her traditional strongholds, which may make it difficult to hold the election and for Musharraf to continue in power for long.

URL for this article:
http://www.rediff.com///news/2007/dec/27raman.htm

David Edwards and Nick Juliano
December 27, 2007

Raw Stor In an e-mail sent to a confidant in the US two months ago, assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said she would hold the country's current leader Pervez Musharraf "responsible" because his government did not do enough to provide for her security.

"I wld (sic) hold Musharraf responsible," Bhutto wrote to her US spokesman, Mark Siegel, in the October e-mail, which was reported Thursday afternoon by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I have been made to feel insecure by his minions, and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides cld (sic) happen without him."

Blitzer told viewers he received the e-mail soon after it was sent two months ago, but he agreed not to report on it unless Bhutto was assassinated. "It's a story I was asked to report to the world in -- if Bhutto were killed," he said.

What Bhutto's Death Means

...for our holiday season. I really hate it when it appears a region and its people live down to my expectations.
I'm saddened, but not surprised that Bhutto was killed. While not perfect in any way, she represented one of only a few remaining hopes for a secular, somewhat democratic government in Pakistan. For her to be killed in a city known in Pakistan as a military city is a big black eye for them, as in hindsight they could have shown support for the democratic process by assigning a detachment to assist in her personal security while in town.
I won't even try to guess "what if she didn't go..." This would serve no more purpose than similar speculation on 'what if MLK hadn't gone to Memphis that day in April...' Sometimes it's just no possible to keep an activist from going somewhere to do what they think needs to be done....and that's not a bad thing.

Bush & co. sowed the wind when they let OBL loose running into Pakistan....the whirlwind is only starting to be reaped at this point. Don't think for a moment that Sharif's stalkers are gonna let their setback stop them....they'lll get him too, soon enough.
Mushy's going to be alone and hated, with the US propping up his regime, just like the Shah was. I wonder if he'll be able to escape like the Shah did when the government falls.....

-5.75,-4.05
Certainly there are things in life that money can't buy, but it's very funny--
Did you ever try buying them without money?
-- Ogden Nash

A killing that reverberates far beyond Pakistan
Published: 28 December 2007

There was an appalling sense of inevitability about the death of Benazir Bhutto at an election rally in Rawalpindi. The risk she had taken in returning to Pakistan was brutally apparent from the moment her plane touched down. The failed attempt on her life during the interminable procession that day showed how inadequate her protection would be if she continued her campaign. That she did so nonetheless showed admirable, if perhaps foolhardy, courage. An accursed symmetry had it that she died yesterday in the same garrison city where her deposed father was executed. Her quest to avenge his death and return elected government to Pakistan came to naught.

Ms Bhutto had powerful enemies, and there were damaging accusations against her: of corruption, nepotism and entitlement. But there could be no doubting either her sense of personal destiny or the seriousness with which she plied her politics. While lineage played its part, she was one of the first women to be elected prime minister of an Islamic country. The gamble she took in accepting the deal President Musharraf offered her – an end to exile, an election campaign and, if her People's Party won, the prime ministership – was not an unreasonable one for her to make. When she, rightly, broke with Mr Musharraf over his failure to lift martial law, she took the more difficult course. Rather than returning to exile, she stayed to fight.

In a way, her gamble was rewarded. Mr Musharraf lifted the state of emergency. Before his re-inauguration as President, he made the formal move into civilian life. When she died, an election campaign not entirely unworthy of the name was in progress. Whether it would have been strictly constitutional for Ms Bhutto to accept a third term as Prime Minister was a question that lurked only a little uneasily in the wings. At the time, it was just possible to believe that Mr Musharraf and Ms Bhutto might be able to bury their differences for the sake of a stable Pakistan and a rapid transition to democracy.

Those hopes now appear wildly unrealistic. But if, with the false wisdom of hindsight, yesterday's assassination seemed inevitable, the consequences can only be unpredictable and highly dangerous. It seems unlikely that any of the gains of recent months can be maintained. Disturbances broke out in cities across Pakistan within minutes of the announcement of Ms Bhutto's death. The language of martyrdom in which her assassination was condemned bespoke conflict and bloodshed to come.

These will be perilous days for Pakistan. The return to civilian rule and the parliamentary elections, now less than two weeks away, are both surely threatened. Mr Musharraf's position is as shaky as it has been since he seized power. His call for calm "so that the nefarious designs of terrorists can be defeated" smacked of desperation, the national security card ever the last resort of the weak leader. And even if, as is probable, he had no part whatever in her death, there will be many among her supporters who will believe he did.

As the urgent words of tribute and warning showed yesterday, however, Ms Bhutto's assassination will reverberate far beyond her native land. The United States, and to a lesser extent Britain, had encouraged Ms Bhutto to return in the expectation that she would be Pakistan's next Prime Minister. They envisaged her as a moderating and pro-Western force in a country where Islamic extremism is never far from the surface. They hoped an electoral mandate would bring stability. At a time when the Taliban are advancing in Afghanistan, violence still plagues Iraq, and Iran's intentions are uncertain, new volatility in the region can be in no one's interests. Benazir Bhutto might not have been able, as she aspired, to save Pakistan for democracy, but now she will not have the chance.

Syed Saleem Shahzad | Karachi | December 28

ATO - ”We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat mujahideen.” These were the words of al-Qaeda’s top commander for Afghanistan operations and spokesperson Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, immediately after the attack that claimed the life of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto on Thursday (December 27).

“This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against al-Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen,” Mustafa told Asia Times Online by telephone.

He said the death squad consisted of Punjabi associates of the underground anti-Shi’ite militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, operating under al-Qaeda orders.

The assassination of Bhutto was apparently only one of the goals of a large al-Qaeda plot, the existence of which was revealed earlier this month.


more at link

Faisal Azaz | Naudero | December 28

Reuters - Thousands of mourners began the funeral on Friday of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, whose assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history.

Her killing on Thursday after an election rally triggered a wave of violence, especially in her native Sindh province, where at least 16 people, including three policemen, were killed.

It stoked fears that a January 8 election meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule could be put off, although caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said there was no change in timing for now.

Mourners wept and beat their heads as Bhutto's body was carried out of her ancestral home in Sindh, in the south of the country, at the start of the funeral procession.

Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, accompanied the closed coffin draped with the green, red and black tricolor of her Pakistan People's Party as it began the 7-km (4-mile) journey by ambulance to the white, domed family mausoleum.

"Show patience. Give us courage to bear this loss," Zardari earlier told the crowds after arriving in Sindh with his wife's body, accompanied by their three teenage children.

more at link

** Grief, anger well at Bhutto funeral procession
** Seventeen dead in Bhutto protests in Pakistan

comprehensive coverage at Reuters and at McClatchy

December 28, 2007
Pakistan military can deliver security, but not a long-term solution
Bronwen Maddox, Chief Foreign Commentator of The Times

The burning barricades set up across Karachi today by Benazir Bhutto's supporters do not have to presage civil war. Pakistan has gone through a year of crisis, as eight years of military rule has unravelled, yet enough of the country's institutions work well to have provided a powerful steadying influence through the growing turmoil.

The military itself, the strongest organisation in the country, is the biggest insurance against widespread sectarian violence. The civil service, the judiciary (even though it has been drawn into politics since the spring), the provincial governments, have given Pakistan since its birth an astonishing self-righting capability during repeated crises. The health of the commercial sector — one of the most impressive products of President Musharraf's eight-year tenure — is a newer but powerful factor.

Of course, widespread civil unrest is possible — and the more likely if elections are postponed significantly. The best course for Pakistan now is to hold those polls, giving Benazir's grieving supporters a legitimate outlet for their fury. Her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) stands an excellent chance, if the vote goes ahead, of securing a majority.

The most serious immediate threat, however, may come from business and finance, if the capital that has poured into Pakistan in recent years begins to pour out. Beyond that, the greatest damage would come from any entrenchment of the position of the military.

Musharraf may have supplied stability, of a sort, but the encroachment of the army into every arena of public life, extending its own networks of preferment and corruption, was itself becoming the aggravation, not the solution. No doubt, the military has the ability to deliver peace on the streets in the very short term, but beyond, its primacy is a recipe for profound social unrest, as Musharraf's tenacity in clinging to power was beginning to show.

The PPP itself — as it tries to recover after the death of its charismatic leader, whose position was unchallenged even in eight years of exile — will have a central role in determining whether the current violence takes root and spreads. If it can produce a single leader to unite its many factions, then it may be able to direct its supporters to express their passion through rallies or votes, drawing on the network of local candidates it had already mustered to fight the elections. The most common name mentioned in the hours after Benazir's death as a possible leader was Makhdoom Ameen Fahim, the PPP vice-chairman who ran the party during her exile.

But the party — sometimes disparagingly called a cult, for the consuming devotion of its supporters to the Bhutto clan — may find it hard to convert that passion to a new leader. It was built by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir's father, out of the obsessive loyalty of many of the poorest people in the farmland of Sindh province, the slums of Karachi and the villages of Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province. That passion was transfered to Benazir after her father's execution.

At her homecoming in Karachi in October, the party's formidable machine managed to assemble hundreds of thousands to greet her. Outside Bilawal House, the family compound, hundreds of supporters who had travelled miles simply sat, day after day, at the foot of the 30ft security barrier, knowing they would not catch a glimpse of their leader but happy to be within yards of her presence.

If the PPP cannot pick a new leader, the danger is that its factions now start fighting. Urban intellectuals may rally to Aitzaz Ahsan, the omnipresent head of the Supreme Court of Pakistan Bar Association, who led lawyers' protests against Musharraf. But he has no political base; instead, others of the 700,000-strong Bhutto clan, many of whom loathed Benazir, may jostle for their share of support.

If that happens, it may become impossible to hold elections, even if the army has managed to keep the lid on violence. In that case, the frustrations of Benazir's supporters have the potential to keep erupting in violent protest.

The army is large enough (with more than half a million soldiers) and well-disciplined enough to control uprisings in the main cities, although it can do nothing — as her assassination has shown — against suicide bombers. This year, Pakistan has suffered 40-odd suicide attacks, killing more than 750 people, although most of the attacks have been near the Afghan border. The big cities, always vulnerable, have largely been spared.

A display of stability, even delivered as a state of emergency, will do a lot to reassure financial markets. It might deter expatriate Pakistanis working in the Gulf from withdrawing the cash they had so enthusiastically begun putting into their home country.

But the curse of Pakistan is that while the army can always claim to deliver security, it cannot deliver reform. One of Musharraf's worst mistakes, although ignored by Britain, the US and his other international supporters, was to allow the army to abuse its power to shore up the standing and personal wealth of key officers.

The heart of the army — about 70 per cent of its soldiers and officers — is the Punjab. The appropriation of land by officers in the other three provinces stirred up local resentments, particularly in Sindh and Baluchistan, which came to regard it not as a national defence force, but a predatory organisation from the Punjab.

In the most valuable analysis of Pakistan published this year, Ayesha Siddiqa, a London-based academic, describes the reach of Pakistan's military into every part of official and commercial life. In Military Inc — inside Pakistan's Military Economy, she describes how the four foundations set up by the services run cement and sugar plants, among others, taking a share of many parts of commercial life.

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Thousands weep as Bhutto buried
Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:44am EST

By Faisal Aziz

NAUDERO, Pakistan (Reuters) - Benazir Bhutto was buried on Friday in her family mausoleum after the opposition leader's assassination plunged Pakistan into crisis and triggered violent protests across her native Sindh province.

Tens of thousands of mourners wept and beat their heads as Bhutto, killed by a suicide attacker at an election rally on Thursday, was carried from her ancestral home in Sindh, in the south of the country, to the domed mausoleum.

The death of the 54-year-old Bhutto stoked fears that a January 8 election meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule could be put off, although caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said there was no change in timing for now.

Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, wept as he accompanied the closed coffin, draped with the green, red and black tricolor of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, on the 7-km journey to the tomb in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

He then prayed at the tomb with the couple's three children, son Bilawal, 19, and daughters Bakhtawar, 17 and Aseefa, 14.

Many mourners chanted slogans against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and the United States, which has long backed the former army general in the hope he can maintain stability in the nuclear-armed country racked by Islamist violent.

"Shame on the killer Musharraf, shame on the killer U.S.," mourners cried.

Others wept in despair. "Bhutto was my sister and Bhutto was like my mother," cried farmer Imam Baksh. "With her death, the world has ended for us."

Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but left the army last month to become a civilian president, has appealed for calm and blamed Islamist militants for the killing.

But many accused him of failing to protect Bhutto, who died in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home of the Pakistani army.

In Sindh, where Bhutto had huge popular support,

particularly among the rural poor, at least 16 people, including three policemen, were killed in protests.

"We're anticipating the situation might get worse after the funeral," Sindh Interior Minister Akhtar Zaman told Reuters.

SMOULDERING VEHICLES

World leaders urged Pakistan to stay the course towards democracy, as Bhutto's death rattled markets and triggered a flight to less risky assets such as bonds and gold.

"Unrest in Pakistan is eroding the market sentiment dramatically as Pakistan, unlike North Korea or Iran, is known to really have nuclear weapons," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

In Sindh, authorities issued an order to shoot violent protesters on sight. Hundreds of cars, trucks and buses smoldered in the interior of the province and crowds of men set up road blocks and chanted slogans against Musharraf.

Meanwhile, a blast at an election meeting in Pakistan's troubled northwest killed six people including a candidate for the party that supports Musharraf, police said.

There were also sporadic protests elsewhere in the country and one person was killed in the eastern city of Lahore.

Bhutto returned home from self-imposed exile in October, hoping to become prime minister for a third time.

But as she left the election rally she stood to wave to supporters from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof car. An attacker shot at her before blowing himself up, police and witnesses said.

She was killed by bullets to the head and neck. "The shooter was either very well trained or he was very close so he could hit her in the temple and neck," a security official said.

She was buried alongside her father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.

Her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, who both died in unexplained circumstances, are also buried in the mausoleum she herself had ordered to be built.

"ELECTIONS STAND"

The United States, which relies on Pakistan as an ally against al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, had championed the Harvard- and Oxford-educated Bhutto, seeing in her the best hope of a return to democracy.

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President George W. Bush said.

He phoned Musharraf and urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto's memory by going ahead with the election.

"Elections stand as they were announced," Prime Minister Soomro told reporters. But analysts said the assassination, which followed a wave of suicide attacks and the worsening of an Islamist insurgency, could make this impossible.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto's old political rival, said his party would boycott the January election.

He blamed Musharraf for the instability.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November in what was seen as an attempt to stop the judiciary from vetoing his re-election as president. He lifted emergency rule this month.

In 1988, aged just 35, Bhutto became the Muslim world's first democratically elected woman prime minister. Deposed in 1990, she was re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption she said were politically motivated.

Bhutto escaped unhurt from a suicide attack in October that killed at least 139 people.

She had spoken of al Qaeda plots to kill her. But she also had enemies in other quarters including among the powerful intelligence services and some allies of Musharraf.

Police said on Friday that they had reconstructed a mangled human head hoping to identify the man who killed her.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Hundreds of thousands of emotional mourners bade farewell Friday to Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and one of the most iconic figures in Pakistani politics, who was buried in her ancestral village a day after being assassinated at an election rally.

As Ms. Bhutto was buried in the midst of a chaotic but peaceful crowd, violence continued to flare across the country and the political situation remained deeply uncertain.

Supporters of Ms. Bhutto went on rampages in several cities, torching cars and stores and ransacking banks in street violence that claimed at least 10 lives, news wires reported. The government ordered paramilitary forces in Ms. Bhutto’s southern home province of Sindh to shoot rioters on sight.

A senior government official said there were no immediate plans to postpone the parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, which are intended to restore democracy after eight years of military dictatorship. Ms. Bhutto, as the leader of the country’s largest political party, would have been a front runner in the contest; she has no clear successor within the party she tightly controlled.

I'm just not buying that it was Al Qaeda

Transcript of Alleged al-Qaida Intercept

Friday December 28, 2007 8:46 PM

By The Associated Press

A transcript released by the Pakistani government Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

Maulvi Sahib: Peace be on you.

Mehsud: Peace be on you, too.

Maulvi Sahib: How are you Emir Sahib?

Mehsud: Fine.

Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations. I arrived now tonight.

Mehsud: Congratulations to you, too.

Maulvi Sahib: They were our men there.

Mehsud: Who were they?

Maulvi Sahib : There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there.

Mehsud: The three did it?

Maulvi Sahib: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

Mehsud: Then congratulations to you again.

Maulvi: Where are you? I want to meet with you?

Mehsud: I am in Makin. Come I am at Anwar Shah's home.

Maulvi Sahib: OK I will come.

Mehsud: Do not inform their family presently.

Maulvi Sahib: Right.

Mehsud: It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.

Maulvi Sahib: Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.

Mehsud: I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.

Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations to you as well.

Mehsud: Any service?

Mauvliv: Thank you very much?

Mehsud: Peace be on you.

Maulvi: Same to you.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

News Analysis: Who killed Benazir Bhutto?

By Najam Sethi

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has raised two important questions. Who killed her and why? And what happens next to the Pakistan People’s Party and by corollary to Pakistani politics?

Most Pakistanis are by instinct inclined to believe that the “agencies” did it. This is the easy explanation for anything that happens in this country which is either inexplicable or unpalatable. All political assassinations in Pakistan remain inexplicable since the truth about them has never been investigated or investigated but not made public. But the truth of Ms Bhutto’s assassination may also be subliminally unacceptable to many Pakistanis because a religious or “Islamist” element may be at its unpleasant core.

This response is also partly due to the ubiquitous role of the “agencies” in ordering Pakistan’s political contours since the 1980s, including making and unmaking governments and elections. So we can hardly be blamed for suspecting the “agencies” or clutching at half-baked theories. Certainly, the political opposition to President Pervez Musharraf would like everyone to think so. It suits the politicians’ purpose because it discredits the Musharraf regime and seeks to exploit the widespread anger and outrage at the killing of a popular leader to try and overthrow him.

But if the “agencies” have done this at President Musharraf’s bidding, why is no one asking about their motives for doing so, or whether this suits him in any way, considering that it is likely to provoke a popular movement to undo his regime? Indeed, why is no one wondering whether there is some non-agency link between Ms Bhutto’s assassination and the assassination attempts on the lives of President Musharraf (two), the former corps commander of Karachi, Ahsan Saleem Hayat (one), the former prime minister Shaukat Aziz (one) and the former interior minister Aftab Sherpao (two)? Surely, the “agencies” did not target these gentlemen.

Of course, Ms Bhutto did not make any explanations easier following the assassination attempt on her on 18 October when she pointed to “remnants” of the Zia regime in the Musharraf administration, including some former “agency” people. Apparently, she had been given to understand as much, but by whom and why we will never know.

There may also have been an element of political opportunism in her accusations at the time. She was trying to distance herself from President Musharraf to regain her credibility because most Pakistanis were unhappy at the prospect of a “deal” between her and him. Indeed, she was seen as being let off the hook regarding the corruption cases against her in exchange for agreeing to work with him at a time when he was terribly unpopular both for his political blunders regarding the judiciary and also for his pro-US stance on the “war against terror”. Most Pakistanis saw this war an unjust American war and not a just Pakistani war.

Later, however, Ms Bhutto saw the writing on the wall and changed tack. She started to say that the biggest threat to Pakistan lay in religious extremism and terrorism, a clear allusion to the Al Qaeda network that was trying to lay down roots in Pakistan’s tribal areas as part of its global strategy after Iraq to reclaim Afghanistan and make Pakistan a base area for Islamic revolution.

Shortly before she returned to Pakistan, Daily Times reported a statement by Baitullah Mehsud, an Al Qaeda-Taliban warlord based in Waziristan, saying that he had trained “hundreds of suicide bombers” and was determined to kill Benazir Bhutto because she was an American agent. The story was based on an interview given to Daily Times by a sitting member of the Pakistan senate who has been a conduit for Masud’s statements and who had recently met him.

The story was not denied for two weeks and disregarded until the assassination attempt provoked widespread outrage in Pakistan and refocused attention on Al Qaeda. But sections of the media sympathetic to Al Qaeda’s anti-American aims and objectives now quickly pounced on Daily Times and accused it of wilfully carrying an erroneous report. The senator was dragged to a TV studio and made to recant his statement and much was made of the motives of Daily Times in airing such a story. Later, a statement from Baitullah Masud was floated denying involvement in the assassination attempt on October 18. Last month, however, Baitullah Masud gave up pretences and formally announced himself as the head of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan.

Why is it difficult to believe that the same Islamist network that tried to eliminate President Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, Aftab Sherpao and Benazir Bhutto on October 18 may be responsible for her murder on December 27? The first three have overtly been involved in the “war against terror” while Ms Bhutto had pledged many times to wipe out the extremists and terrorists if she was returned to power. All were seen as “American agents” or “puppets”.

In the case of President Musharraf, it was later revealed that “rogue elements” in the “agencies” or “forces” may have been involved as Al Qaeda “supplementaries” or “accessories” in the assassination attempts on his life. Indeed, in many of the Al Qaeda attacks on the armed forces and paramilitary forces, especially those in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, low-level “insider” elements with contacts with the Lal Masjid, which was part of the Al Qaeda network, are known to have been involved. How else can one explain the Al Qaeda attacks on ISI busses in Islamabad in which civilian employees of the agency have been killed?

Clearly, Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan doesn’t just comprise Arabs and Uzbeks and Tajiks. It also comprises Pakistanis; and among such Pakistanis it comprises Pathans and Punjabis and possibly Urdu speakers who constitute the Pakistani Taliban. Certainly, it is known that a number of Pakistani sectarian and jihadi Sunni organisations have joined the Al Qaeda Network after the government launched efforts to disband them since the “peace process” started with India. So Al Qaeda is now as much a Pakistani phenomenon as it is an Arab or foreign element.

There is not much room for doubt on this score any more. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the number two Al Qaeda man, has already gone public in his exhortations to Pakistanis to overthrow the Musharraf regime. Indeed, last September Bin Laden declared a jihad against the Musharraf regime. Now, following the assassination of Ms Bhutto on December 27, an Al Qaeda spokesman and Afghanistan commander Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid telephoned the Italian news agency AKI to make the claim that his organisation had killed Ms Benazir Bhutto “because she was a precious American asset”. This should have reminded Pakistanis that their country is in the midst of a global war against religious extremism. But the tragedy is that it hasn’t.

There is no inconsistency between what Ms Bhutto said on October 18 after the assassination attempt on her life about remnants of the Zia regime gunning for her and what she said in Rawalpindi on December 27 about terrorists and extremists targeting her minutes before one of them succeeded in eliminating her. Now Al Qaeda’s primary targets are President Musharraf and Maulana Fazlur Rehman and its sole objective is to destabilise Pakistan and sow the seeds of anarchy by scuttling its halting transition to a moderate democracy.

[Tomorrow: What next?]

posted under fair use

By Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich in Karachi, December 29

Pakistan's former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party will not participate in the planned elections on 8 January, and that no one should benefit from Benazir Bhutto's killing.

But her assassination leaves him as far and away the most powerful opposition politician, and his behaviour over the coming days could be crucial to the way events play out. His party is particularly strong in the politically all-important province of Punjab.

Mr Sharif, ousted by Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup, finally returned from exile last month. But although he has been central to his party's campaign, the country's election commission had already ruled that he was not eligible to stand as a candidate. Mr Sharif has suggested he could not work with Mr Musharraf and it is difficult to see how the two bitter rivals could compromise. But the PML-N, in opposition for years, is equally desperate to seize power.

General Ashfaq Kayani, the head of the armed services, is one of the most powerful people in Pakistan. The former head of the powerful Interservices Intelligence Service (ISI) was sworn in as head of the armed services last month when Mr Musharraf stood down from the post and became a civilian president.

General Kayani is considered a West-friendly career soldier. He has spent time in Washington, where he is well-thought of. The avid golfer has kept a deliberately low profile but in the aftermath of the state of emergency declared last month, a flurry of rumours suggested that General Kayani had led a coup against Mr Musharraf.

They were not true but they highlighted General Kayani's central role in the military-political establishment. Could the military yet turn on Mr Musharraf? If the military considered him unable to keep order, some believe he could be vulnerable to being pushed aside and the army declaring martial law.

Atizaz Ahsan, the prominent lawyer and human rights campaigner, has been named as a possible successor to Ms Bhutto as head of the Pakistan People's Party, (PPP). But the party has always ben led by a Bhutto and some observers fear it could disintegrate into factions.
Source

PPP wants Benazir's body exhumed for autopsy
Saturday, 29 December , 2007, 11:20
SIFY

Toronto: Over 2,500 Pakistani Canadians on Friday performed funeral in absentia for slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto at a city mosque here before venting their anger on President Pervez Musharraf for her death.

The 54-year-old president of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was assassinated at an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday and buried in her native Sindh on Friday.

Speaking to the media after the nawaz-e-janana (final prayer) ceremony at the Al-Mustafa mosque, the mourners vented their anger at President Pervez Musharraf for his alleged complicity in the assassination.

Special: The Daughter of Destiny | Full coverage

``The government's ever-changing version of how Bibiji (Benazir) was killed confirms our suspicions that this deed was done by Musharraf, the ISI, and the IB (maybe) in league with the Taliban,'' Pakistan People's Party (Canada) secretary Ibrahim Daniyal told IANS.

He said PPP cadres were not ready to believe that Asif Ali Zardari disallowed autopsy on Benazir's body. ``We would like the world to know how she was killed even if it means taking out the body and performing autopsy.''

Suraiya Khan, president of PPP Women's Wing, said, ``To nail this government's lies, we would like the body exhumed to ascertain the cause of her death. Yesterday, they were saying that she was killed by assassin's bullets. Then they said something else. Now they are saying that she was killed because her skull got crashed when she ducked and hit the roof of her vehicle.''

Khan said even the US had started suspecting Musharraf's version of the killing. ``We want this man to be hanged. America says it gave him billions of dollars to fight terrorism, but he and his generals gobbled it up. That's how they are financing their sons and daughters studying abroad. We are told Musharraf has bought a huge house in Chicago with this money.''

Daniyal said Musharraf was changing theories (of assassination) to confuse Pakistanis as he has now civil war on his hands.

``Like they did in 1951 in the case of Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination when they eliminated all evidence by shooting the alleged killer, this government is also trying to destroy all proof. If these lies persist, we want the body taken out for autopsy.''

Fearing the raging violence after the assassination, many Pakistani Canadians have cancelled their visit to Pakistan. A Pakistan International Airlines flight to Islamabad, sold out till Thursday, took off half empty on Friday evening.

Canada has also warned its citizens against travelling to the riot-ravaged country. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs said, ``Canadians who choose to travel to Pakistan despite this warning should evaluate carefully the implications for their security and safety."

Cautioning those already in Pakistan, the ministry said they should ``exercise an extreme level of caution, monitor news reports and follow the advice of local authorities. They should also avoid all crowds, demonstrations and political gatherings, and stay away from areas where they will occur, as they may turn violent without warning."

Daily Mail

graphic

Bhutto´s Day: Why Did The Camera Pan?

I'm not sure what to think of this and I don't know the site

From Twitter/Pakistan:

It is just being announced that Bilawal Zardari, eldest son of Benazir Bhutto will be the new Chairman of PPP

CNN, December 29

Islamabad, Pakistan -- The Pakistani government has no problem with officials from Benazir Bhutto's political party exhuming the slain opposition leader's body if they see a need to do so, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema made the remark when asked about comments from a top Bhutto aide who helped bathe Benazir Bhutto's body after her death.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan People's Party information secretary, said it was clear that the former Pakistani prime minister suffered bullet wounds to her head, contrary to a government report that she died because she hit her head on a sunroof lever.

Cheema noted that if Rehman -- as she said -- believes she saw bullet wounds that caused Bhutto's death, "We don't mind if the People's Party leadership wants her body to be exhumed and post-mortemed. They are most welcome, but we gave you what the facts are."

Cheema emphasized that the government's conclusion on the cause of death was based on "absolute facts, nothing but the facts."

[...]

Zaman gave other figures on the violence in the southern Pakistani province. He said 900 vehicles were set ablaze, 672 of those in Karachi. Also set on fire were 37 police stations, 141 banks, and 31 gas stations. He said at least 368 people were arrested.

At the same time, Pakistan's Interior Ministry spokesman provided figures for the whole country. He said 38 people had died and 53 others were wounded.

He said 174 banks have burned and 26 banks have been destroyed, 158 offices have been burned and 23 have been damaged. He said 43 gas stations have been ignited. There were 370 cars destroyed and 61 cars damaged.

New York Times, by Somini Sengupta, December 29

NAUDERO, Pakistan — Nawaz Sharif ventured into the political stronghold of his assassinated rival on Saturday and sought to make common cause against Pakistan’s president, laying a wreath on the grave of Benazir Bhutto and echoing her pleas for democracy.

Mr. Sharif, a former prime minister who had brought a raft of corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto and her family, needs to forge an alliance with her currently leaderless political party to challenge the government of President Pervez Musharraf. On Saturday, he flew on a chartered plane to Moenjodaro, where South Asian civilization was born some 5,000 years ago, and from there he drove in a long, dusty convoy of cars to this ancestral village of Ms. Bhutto’s, where senior leaders of both their parties met briefly to condole and discuss the way forward.

Mr. Sharif has already said his party would boycott the polls, scheduled for next month. Aboard the plane to Moenjodaro, he said he hoped Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party would join the boycott.

The party was noncommittal. Farhatullah Babar, a party spokesman, said it was too early for his organization to make a decision about whether to go ahead and contest the elections. The party’s executive council is scheduled to meet Sunday afternoon to discuss its future plans, including “how the party will be led and by whom,” he said.

CBC News, Dcember 28

[In case anyone were planning a trip...]

Ottawa updated its travel advisory to Pakistan on Thursday in light of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, telling people to avoid all non-essential trips to the country.

While Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advised against non-essential travel to Pakistan even before the assassination of the Pakistani opposition leader, it is now emphasizing warnings to Canadians who feel they absolutely need to be there.

They should ensure all travel documents are up-to-date, and register and keep in contact with the High Commission of Canada in Islamabad, say department officials.

Canadian officials also continue to advise against all travel to areas reporting military or militant activity and all border areas except official border-crossing points.

[...]

"Most of Pakistan has shut down air traffic, railways, as modes of transportation. There are curfews — people are not able to travel across Pakistan at all."

Site of assassination (Google Earth .kmz file)

Site of Bhutto's burial (Google Earth .kmz file)

Naudero (Google Earth .kmz file)

Moenjodaro (Google Earth .kmz file)

Makin - site of alleged intercept (Google Earth .kmz file)

For those that don't already know, these files are used by the free Google Earth application (Google download page) for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

Pakistan's Crisis Could Affect War In Afghanistan

Washington Post, By Thomas E. Ricks & Robin Wright, December 29

President Bush held an emergency meeting of his top foreign policy aides yesterday to discuss the deepening crisis in Pakistan, as administration officials and others explored whether Thursday's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto marks the beginning of a new Islamic extremist offensive that could spread beyond Pakistan and undermine the U.S. war effort in neighboring Afghanistan.

U.S. officials fear that a renewed campaign by Islamic militants aimed at the Pakistani government, and based along the border with Afghanistan, would complicate U.S. policy in the region by effectively merging the six-year-old war in Afghanistan with Pakistan's growing turbulence.

"The fates of Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably tied," said J. Alexander Thier, a former United Nations official in Afghanistan who is now at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

U.S. military officers and other defense experts do not anticipate an immediate impact on U.S. operations in Afghanistan. But they are concerned that continued instability eventually will spill over and intensify the fighting in Afghanistan, which has spiked in recent months as the Taliban has strengthened and expanded its operations.

[...]

After signing a condolence book for Bhutto at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Rice said the United States is in contact with "all" of the parties in Pakistan and stressed that the Jan. 8 elections should not be postponed. "Obviously, it's just very important that the democratic process go forward," she told reporters.

The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan warned U.S. citizens Thursday to keep a low profile and avoid public gatherings. A Pentagon official said plans to evacuate Americans from the country are being reviewed.

Musharraf, army, opposition warily weigh next moves after Bhutto; U.S. reaches out to others

Chicago Tribune, By Kim Barker and Laurie Goering, December 30

LARKANA, Pakistan — The sudden disappearance of Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan's political scene leaves behind a dangerous period of uncertainty for the country, forcing leaders from Islamabad to Washington into difficult choices about how to protect their interests and keep the nuclear-armed, Islamist-threatened country from descending further into chaos.

As rioting and protests spread after Bhutto's assassination Thursday, most of the power brokers in the country—from President Pervez Musharraf to the army generals to the demoralized opposition to the Bush administration—were busy considering their options, eyeing each other in what will be a game of wills playing out in the coming days and weeks.

For Musharraf, the goal will be finding the right moves to quell further unrest that would continue to undermine his weakened hold on power. For his former colleagues in the army command, seeing that order is restored without having to brutally crack down on protesters is key to maintaining their power and standing—and perhaps avoiding being forced to move against Musharraf himself.

In Washington, where Pakistan's stability is considered crucial in the battle against resurgent Islamic extremists on the border with Afghanistan, U.S. officials were reaching out to an array of political figures, assessing whether they could turn the loss of the woman who shouldered their hopes for Pakistan into a more serious commitment to battle the Islamic militants who may have killed her.

"What we are looking at is whether there is a way, given that this event was such an extreme shock, to take advantage of it to reset politics in Pakistan," a senior U.S. administration official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Others dismissed that idea, noting that most Pakistanis already deeply resent U.S. intervention in their country. One of the biggest fears in Washington is a growing vacuum of power that could provide troublesome opportunities for the radical Islamists who are already spreading their influence beyond the mostly lawless tribal areas along the border.

The Independent, December 29

Weird, isn't it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were "extremists" and "terrorists". Well, you can't dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa'ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country.

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it's not surprising that the "good-versus-evil" donkey can be trotted out to explain the carnage in Rawalpindi.

Who would have imagined, watching the BBC or CNN on Thursday, that her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, hijacked a Pakistani airliner in 1981 and flew it to Kabul where Murtaza demanded the release of political prisoners in Pakistan. Here, a military officer on the plane was murdered. There were Americans aboard the flight – which is probably why the prisoners were indeed released.

[...]

Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir's supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.

Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?

Er. Yes. Well quite.

You see the problem? Yesterday, our television warriors informed us the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a "murderer" were complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir. Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her.

Police confront protesters in Pakistan

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has ordered firm action to crack down on unrest following the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Musharraf said looters "must be dealt with firmly and all measures be taken to ensure [the] safety and security of the people".

Some 38 people have died in violence that has broken out since Ms Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday.

Meanwhile, her party has rejected the government's explanation of her death.

A government spokesman said her head was slammed against her vehicle by the force of a bomb - but colleagues said she died from bullet wounds.

Troops have been deployed onto the streets to try to quell the violence that has broken out since Ms Bhutto's death.

The shells of burned cars littered the deserted streets of Ms Bhutto's home city of Larkana on Saturday, after overnight rioting.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said rioting across the country had destroyed 176 banks, 72 train cars and 18 railway stations, while at least 100 prisoners had been sprung from jails.
More

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan is one of the few journalists to have met Baitullah Mehsud, the man the Pakistani authorities say ordered the killing of Benazir Bhutto.

Baitullah Mehsud, the 34-year-old pro-Taleban militant commander, fits the part of the Pakistani tribal guerrilla leader to the hilt.

But there is something extra about him as well.

The few journalists who have met him speak of his earnest desire to support his actions by his interpretation of Islamic ideals.

The emphasis here is on jihad (holy war) against foreign occupying forces in Afghanistan and the establishment of an Islamic state.

These include the use of suicide bombers and cross-border attacks on international forces based there.

There is also his aversion to publicity in general, and to photography in particular.

"He does not allow his picture to be taken," says a journalist who has met the commander.

It is an aversion he shares with Taleban supreme commander Mullah Omar, with whom he is said to have a "good relationship".

Afghan 'duty'

Baitullah Mehsud, as his name suggests, belongs to the Mehsud tribe in Pakistan's troubled South Waziristan region.

The area is now said to be a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
More

The picture, according to the Pakistani news channel, was taken by an amateur photographer (Reuters Photo)

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani TV news channel has aired photographs of two men it said were involved in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto after an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

One of the two grainy photos -- which Dawn News channel said were clicked by an amateur photographer -- showed a youth wearing sunglasses aiming a pistol at Bhutto's back while she waved through the sun-roof of her bulletproof vehicle to her supporters.

The other picture, apparently taken before the shooting, showed the same youth standing next to another man who had a white cloth wrapped around his face. Dawn News described the second man as the "suspected suicide bomber".

The position of the youth with the pistol in the photo coincided with the position of the shooter seen in video footage of the attack on Bhutto released by the interior ministry on Saturday. In that footage, the face of the shooter is obscured but his hand can be seen holding a pistol that is used to fire three to four shots towards Bhutto.
Source

ISLAMABAD Pakistan's interior ministry said Saturday that the international community "does not understand the environment" in the country, ruling out international help in probing Benazir Bhutto's death.

With questions raised about the official account of how she died, which has been rejected by Bhutto's aides and supporters, ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said the Pakistan government had told the truth.

He added that the government would let the former premier's body be exhumed for inquiry if Bhutto's party asked.

"We do not require the assistance of the international community," he said when asked about calls for an outside probe into her assassination, which has plunged the nuclear-armed Islamic nation deeper into turmoil.

"We understand the environment, the international community does not understand the environment," Cheema told a news conference.

The government said that Bhutto died after banging her head on the sunroof of her vehicle while trying to duck when an attacker came up and started firing before blowing herself up. It said she had no bullet wounds.

The account has been rejected by her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and a key aide and witness who washed her body told AFP earlier that she had seen a bullet wound in Bhutto's head.

"We have given you the facts, we have shared the evidence with you," said Cheema, who on Friday distributed what he said was a transcript of an alleged Al-Qaeda official discussing Bhutto's killing with a militant after the fact.

"If the PPP leadership says, her body can be exhumed," Cheema said. He played down the controversy over how the populist opposition leader, who escaped a previous attack in October within hours of returning to the country from exile, had died.

"Whether she died of a bullet or a wound... the fact is, unfortunately we have lost her," he said.

A spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, the alleged Al-Qaeda figure quoted in the government's transcript, denied any involvement in Bhutto's death.

But Cheema said "no criminal would ever accept" responsibility for his crimes and that the government version was accurate.

"We have the evidence that he is involved and let the investigation work on that," Cheema said. He added that the government account was "absolute facts -- nothing but facts"

Source

Pakistan's Crisis Could Affect War In Afghanistan

President Bush held an emergency meeting of his top foreign policy aides yesterday to discuss the deepening crisis in Pakistan, as administration officials and others explored whether Thursday's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto marks the beginning of a new Islamic extremist offensive that could spread beyond Pakistan and undermine the U.S. war effort in neighboring Afghanistan.

U.S. officials fear that a renewed campaign by Islamic militants aimed at the Pakistani government, and based along the border with Afghanistan, would complicate U.S. policy in the region by effectively merging the six-year-old war in Afghanistan with Pakistan's growing turbulence.

"The fates of Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably tied," said J. Alexander Thier, a former United Nations official in Afghanistan who is now at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

U.S. military officers and other defense experts do not anticipate an immediate impact on U.S. operations in Afghanistan. But they are concerned that continued instability eventually will spill over and intensify the fighting in Afghanistan, which has spiked in recent months as the Taliban has strengthened and expanded its operations.

Unrest in Pakistan and increasing fuel prices have already boosted the cost of food in Afghanistan, making it more likely that hungry Afghans will be lured by payments from the Taliban to participate in attacks, a U.S. Army officer in Afghanistan said.
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Ian Cobain, December 30

The hunt for the killers of Benazir Bhutto became mired in bitter controversy yesterday over a dispute between her supporters and political opponents about how she met her death.

The two sides cannot agree whether she was shot or suffered fatal blast injuries. The dispute could influence the future direction of two inquiries announced yesterday by the Pakistani government.

Any evidence that a lone suicide bomber carried out the attack would support the government's assertion that al-Qaeda was responsible; proof that shots were fired would fuel the suspicion of many within Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) that elements within the Pakistani state were to blame,
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Qaeda network accused by Pakistan’s government of killing the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is increasingly made up not of foreign fighters but of homegrown Pakistani militants bent on destabilizing the country, analysts and security officials here say.

In previous years, Pakistani militants directed their energies against American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan and avoided clashes with the Pakistani Army.

But this year they have very clearly expanded their ranks and turned to a direct confrontation with the Pakistani security forces while also aiming at political figures like Ms. Bhutto, the former prime minister who died when a suicide bomb exploded as she left a political rally on Thursday.

According to American officials in Washington, an already steady stream of threat reports spiked in recent months. Many concerned possible plots to kill prominent Pakistani leaders, including Ms. Bhutto, President Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader.

“Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters in Washington on Dec. 21.

The expansion of Pakistan’s own militants, with their fortified links to Al Qaeda, presents a deeply troubling development for the Bush administration and its efforts to stabilize this volatile nuclear-armed country.

It is also one that many in Pakistan have been loath to admit, but that Ms. Bhutto had begun to acknowledge in her many public statements about the greatest threat to her country being in religious extremism and terrorism.
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Benazir Bhutto's party was to discuss a successor to the slain Pakistani opposition leader on Sunday and decide whether to contest an election due in little over a week, as controversy swirled about exactly how she died.

Bhutto's assassination in a suicide attack on Thursday has stoked violence and thrown into doubt the January 8 election, deepening the crisis in the important U.S. ally against terrorism as it struggles to emerge from military rule.

Anger against President Pervez Musharraf burns strongly among Bhutto supporters and since her death sporadic violence has erupted, boosting fears about nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability.

The death toll from the violence has reached 44.
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Nawaz Sharif joined mourners praying at Ms Bhutto's graveside

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, like his fellow opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, recently returned to Pakistan from exile to challenge the rule of President Pervez Musharraf. On Saturday he visited Ms Bhutto's grave to pay his respects to the slain leader.

For years they were the fiercest of political rivals, stopping at nothing to triumph over each other.

But Nawaz Sharif called Benazir Bhutto's assassination "one of the gloomiest days of Pakistan's history".

As the sun began to set over the Bhutto's vast mausoleum in the family's ancestral and political heartland, Mr Sharif's convoy roared into the compound in a choking cloud of dust and was immediately enveloped by frenzied crowds.

Any chance of a quiet prayer, by the huge mound of pink rose petals now covering Ms Bhutto's grave inside the cavernous shrine, vanished in a cacophony of shouting, wailing, and chanting.

For a moment, Mr Sharif seemed to be the focus rather than Ms Bhutto in her family's feudal fiefdom.

His emotion was palpable. "We've had a very good rapport over the past four to five years," he told me when I joined him in his vehicle after he emerged from the madding crowds.

He spoke of how she had just called him and sent him a bouquet of flowers for his birthday which happens to fall on Christmas Day. "We had developed a good understanding. We used to consult each other on important national issues."
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ISLAMABAD: Born from chaos and bloodshed, and still steeped in turmoil 60 years on, Pakistan has repeatedly defied predictions that the centre of the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation cannot hold.

While Benazir Bhutto's assassination has renewed fears Pakistan will become another failed state with a destiny determined by bombs instead of ballots, analysts say it has been down this road before -- and survived.

Pakistan is accustomed to seeing its political leaders meet a violent end, to be followed by claims civil war is at hand, and a kind of internal war has been part of the national fabric since its birth in 1947, they say.

Carved out of the rump of the British empire to give Muslims their own homeland with the partition of India, even the nation's founding was soaked in blood, with one million killed during the largest migration in human history.

"Pakistan was constructed as a contradiction, a homeland for Muslims that called itself a secular state. That is something Pakistanis have not come to terms with," said Marie Lall, an expert at British think-tank Chatham House.

"But because there is a problem with the basis for the creation of Pakistan, that does not mean it is destined to be a failed state," she said.

Often seen now as little more than a breeding ground for Islamic militancy, Pakistan is a complex mass of tribes and peoples where even the all-powerful military has come to believe that setbacks today do not mean failure tomorrow.

The army, rulers of the country for more than half its existence, had to step in almost at the beginning, following a 1948 conflict with India over the Himalayan region of Kashmir that set off decades of strife.

Since then, Pakistan has lived through war and assassination, turmoil and the "war on terror" -- even the loss of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971, which is widely seen as the most traumatic moment in its history.

"The geo-strategic circumstances, the Cold War, the Afghan jihad, nuclearisation and 9/11 kept feeding the army," said retired Pakistani general and analyst Talat Masood.

Military dictator Zia-ul Haq's support for the war against the 1979 Soviet occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan emerged as the defining policy of this nation of 160 million people for the following three decades.

The devout Islamic fighters trained by Pakistani intelligence agencies to battle the Red Army later became the holy warriors fighting in Indian Kashmir, the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the Al-Qaida militants behind a global jihad.

While the remote and lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border are now the focus of an international campaign against that jihad, Pakistan faces other divisions that are internal but no less intense, analysts say.

There is ethnic discord between Punjabis, Sindhis and Pashtuns -- all of whom are also at odds with the Mohajirs, the Muslim refugees from India after partition, whose most famous exemplar today is President Pervez Musharraf.

Slain opposition leader Bhutto was a Sindhi, and her community was up in arms at her murder in the city of Rawalpindi, the heart of the Punjabi-dominated military establishment.

The slogans chanted by her angry supporters in her Sindhi heartland Saturday after her killing seemed to sum up those deep-rooted tensions.

"Hate Musharraf!" they cried. "Hate Pakistan!" The country has also seen nationalist uprisings by the ethnic Baluch population in the southwest which have twice been brutally suppressed by the army -- the last time in 2006.

"A civil war happens when there are organised groups on two sides working against each other, and we don't see such groups," political analyst Shafqat Mahmood said.

"But a failed state is a crisis of governance, and we do have a crisis of governance," he said.

"We are not destined to fail. We are failing because we are not recognising the base of our new nationhood has to be democracy."
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Fear and satisfaction mix as nuclear rival prepares for fallout

NEW DELHI—India is watching the deepening crisis in Pakistan with decidedly mixed feelings. In a nation with its own long history of painful assassinations, there is a degree of empathy with Pakistan's anguish but also a real sense of satisfaction that its longtime rival is foundering.

Underneath, however, there is also growing worry about what a destabilized Pakistan means for India, the nation with perhaps the most to gain or lose—apart from Pakistan itself—from how its nuclear-armed neighbor's crisis plays out.

Concerned that deepening political unrest in Pakistan could spill over the border, particularly in the form of terrorist attacks, India's national security committee met Friday and suspended bus and train links to Pakistan and put the military on high alert. The transportation connections, reopened in recent years, have often been cited as the strongest evidence of slowly warming Indian-Pakistan relations.

But Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi and editor of the South Asia Intelligence Review, said unrest in Pakistan was actually likely to reduce terrorist attacks in India as Islamist militants in Pakistan's lawless border area with Afghanistan focus their attentions for the moment on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other figures in Pakistan.
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SBB/RA (via PressTV), December 29

Former US ambassador to the UN says Washington has set the stage for the assassination of ex-Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

"By exceeding (sic) to Benazir Bhutto's desire to get back into the game in Pakistan and seeing her as an alternative to the country's current leader Pervez Musharraf, we in effect helped precipitate this dynamic that led to her tragic assassination," said John Bolton.

"It's hard to see how that was the road to success," he added

"You can't say this wasn't foreseeable, and it's obviously led to her death… Hardly a successful strategy," he commented.

Bolton criticized the US Foreign Policy for being hasty in its attempt to reform Pakistan.

"This ought to tell us not to micromanage what goes on in a country like this. What we have now is a prescription for chaos," he admitted.