Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto assassinated

[Alpha]

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday after addressing a large gathering of her supporters.

 

Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said. The attacker then blew himself up. The bomb attack killed at least 22 others, doctors said.

 

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

 

John Moore, a photographer for Getty Images, said Bhutto was standing through the sunroof of her vehicle, waving to supporters, when two shots rang out.

 

Bhutto fell back into the vehicle, and almost immediately a bomb blast rocked the scene, sending twisting metal and shrapnel into the crowd, he added.

 

Police sources told CNN the bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself up near Bhutto's vehicle. Watch aftermath of the attack.Video

 

Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital -- less than two miles from the bombing scene -- where doctors pronounced her dead.

 

Her body was removed from the hospital -- carried above a crowd of supporters -- late Thursday night, and a Pakistan Air Force plane is flying the body to Sukkur, accompanied by her husband and three children, said Pakistan People's Party leader Sen. Safdar Abbasi.

 

Bhutto is scheduled to be buried in the ancestral graveyard of the Bhutto family at Gari-Khuda Baksh in Sindh province Friday afternoon, he added.

 

Chaos erupted at the hospital when former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived to pay his respects to Bhutto less than three hours after her death.

 

Hundreds of Bhutto supporters crammed into the entrance shouted and cried, some clutching their heads in pain and shock. Sharif called it "the saddest day" in Pakistan's history. "Something unthinkable has happened," he said.

 

Sharif said his party will boycott Pakistan's January 8 parliamentary elections in the wake of the assassination.

 

President Pervez Musharraf said the killers were the same extremists that Pakistan is fighting a war against, and announced three days of national mourning.

 

Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets in reaction to the death.

 

Rioters burned tires and blocked roads in Karachi and other cities, police sources said. Police fired on an angry mob, killing two people, in the city of Khairpur in the Sindh province, Geo TV reported.

 

Bhutto's husband issued a statement from his home in Dubai saying, "All I can say is we're devastated, it's a total shock." He arrived in Pakistan late Thursday.

 

President Bush said those responsible "must be brought to justice" and praised Bhutto as a woman who had "fought the forces of terror." He said: "She refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country."

 

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

 

The assassination happened in Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh Park, named for Pakistan's first prime minister -- Liaquat Ali Khan -- who was assassinated in the same location in 1951.

 

The attack came just hours after four supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport Thursday, Pakistan police said.

 

Several other members of Sharif's party were wounded, police said.

 

Bhutto, who led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and was the first female prime minister of any Islamic nation, was participating in the parliamentary election set for January 8, hoping for a third term.

 

A terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people on the day she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

 

CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, who was at the scene of both bombings, said Thursday's blast was not as powerful as that October attack.

 

Thursday's attacks come less than two weeks after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lifted an emergency declaration he said was necessary to secure his country from terrorists.

 

Bhutto had been critical of what she believed was a lack of effort by Musharraf's government to protect her.

 

Two weeks after the October assassination attempt, she wrote a commentary for CNN.com in which she questioned why Pakistan investigators refused international offers of help in finding the attackers.

 

"The sham investigation of the October 19 massacre and the attempt by the ruling party to politically capitalize on this catastrophe are discomforting, but do not suggest any direct involvement by General Pervez Musharraf," Bhutto wrote.

 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/2...utto/index.html

Gah, this makes me sick. I saw a lot of interviews of her on various news stations and she was like the Martin Luther King of women in the middle east. She was against Al Qaeda, Saddam, and all the other jackasses. It makes me sick to see such a brave woman assassinated. The latest news says there was first a bomb attack and then she was shot into the neck and chest. The attacker then blew himself up.

 

I'm tired of these suicide bombers who think they can be martyr's and have 72, 100, 1,000 virgins in heaven. I hope they all rot in the dust and soil of the Earth and get nothing but ants crawling in their dead carcasses.

[Gryph]

This is really terrible news. Pakistan is going to be such a chaotic place now. That place is already teetering towards extremism and this is a huge step back.

[Robert]

Sad news.

[Lucandrake]

Seems like all the good people always get what the assh0les deserve.

[BlackKnight]

Pakistan is a hole. Diplomatic ally maybe, but its an Islamic nation and actions like this show where its loyalties really lie. It is a terrorist coven and I wouldn't be surprised if Bin Laden himself was hiding out there. Nobody looks there because, after all, Pakistan is our 'friend.'

[solidius23]

very sad news, truly a sensless crime. its funny how religion can be a usefull tool in inner peace and understanding, but it can be alose used as a tool for some to do stupid sh it like this.

[Agozer]

Yeah, what a restless world we live in. I wish there was a way to end all that killing. Seems to be wishful thinking, though.

[Wizard]

Hello civil war.

[L.S.D]

First of all, she is NOT martin luther king for women. She was deemed to be corrupted which is why she lost her term last time. The only reason people support her back this time is due to Musharraf is more corrupt than her.

 

Still, this is a sad news and a blow to democracy. Another bad name to Islam, that's for sure.

[LoRd_SnOw]

Very disturbing news to hear... we live for peace, yet for the price of it we cause harm to others for that peace... Rediculous, wouldn't you agree?

 

Things are looking bad as always and what's sad about this whole thing this could be nothing but the icying. who knows if what we're looking for is right under our noses...

Edited December 28, 2007 by LoRd_SnOw

[Wizard]

First of all, she is NOT martin luther king for women. She was deemed to be corrupted which is why she lost her term last time. The only reason people support her back this time is due to Musharraf is more corrupt than her.

 

Still, this is a sad news and a blow to democracy. Another bad name to Islam, that's for sure.

Then she cast her self into self-exile from the country and came back last year. She is definately the lesser of two evils.