History Mystery
Updated 12/28/2007 8:58 AM Comment Recommend E-mail Print Reprints & Permissions
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack after a campaign rally here, dashing hopes for a smooth transition to democracy and creating chaos across the country.
Hours after her assassination, supporters carried her coffin from Rawalpindi General Hospital to a waiting vehicle. Some people smashed glass and wailed.
Across Pakistan, thousands chanted slogans against the government and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Angry people torched tires, vehicles, a train and a gas station. One man died in the violence.
"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "I have been saying that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists. I express my resolve that — and I also seek solidarity from the nation and cooperation and help — we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
Musharraf announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, 54, during which the national flag will fly at half-staff for the former prime minister.
He also called for calm across the country.
President Bush spoke to Musharaff by phone from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Details about what they said were not available, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Earlier, in a brief statement, Bush said "the U.S. strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy. Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice."
He praised Bhutto for confronting the forces of terror and urged the people of Pakistan "to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life."
Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif called on Musharaff to resign immediately and said he would boycott Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
The two-time prime minister said he rushed to the hospital where Bhutto died and sat silently next to her body.
Hours before Bhutto's death, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.
Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving a campaign rally in a park in Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. He then blew himself up.
John Moore, a photographer for Getty Images, took pictures of Bhutto moments before she was shot. Bhutto was standing in the sunroof of a vehicle when the shots were fired.
Early reports contained conflicting accounts of whether Bhutto was killed by gunfire or the blast.
"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," said police officer Mohammad Shahid.
She died about an hour after the attack.
The Associated Press reported that a doctor on the team that treated her said Bhutto had a bullet in the back of the neck that damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head.
Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, said the doctor, who didn't want to be identified.
He said Bhutto was given open heart massage, but the main cause of death was damage to her spinal cord.
At least 20 others died in the attack.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said at a news conference that the Pakistani government "has done its best" to protect Bhutto.
"It was a large rally. ... There are masses of people moving around. ... The world's best security can have limitations," he said.
In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters set tires on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official.
Bhutto's son maintains political dynasty
Pakistan — Standing before the cameras Sunday, bespectacled 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari looked more like a South Asian Harry Potter than the newly crowned leader of a powerful political movement.
But the Oxford University student had the only qualification he needed to become chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party: He's the son of party leader Benazir Bhutto, slain by an assassin on Thursday. And he's the grandson of the party's charismatic founder, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was overthrown and executed by the military three decades ago.
The young Bhutto Zardari "represents a bloodline to a family of martyrs," says former party adviser Husain Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for International Relations.
"The Pakistan Peoples Party isn't the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. It's the Bhutto family party," says Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the newspaper Dawn and parliamentary candidate for a rival political party.
In choosing a teenager, the Peoples Party overlooked experienced contenders such as lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, who rose to prominence leading pro-democracy protests against President Pervez Musharraf. "The Peoples Party won't accept anyone but a Bhutto," political commentator Zaheer Javed says.
Haqqani says dynasties are part of the landscape in South Asia, where political institutions are weak and personalities dominate. India has the Gandhis, and Pakistan the Bhuttos — political royalty with histories of triumph and tragedy.
Longtime Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, daughter of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was gunned down by her bodyguards in 1984. After her death, her Congress Party turned to her untested son, Rajiv.
"I remember reading many analyses saying the Congress Party is dead now," Haqqani recalls. "In the end, it was the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that survived."
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. His widow, Sonia Gandhi, now heads the Congress Party and is the power behind Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Similarly, Haqqani expects the Bhutto dynasty to endure.
For the time being, the Peoples Party will be in the hands of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto Zardari's father and Bhutto's husband. He'll run the organization while his son finishes school. Zardari brings baggage: He spent eight years in jail for corruption and is derisively known as "Mr. 10%" for allegedly taking kickbacks.
"Zardari will face a problem of legitimacy," columnist Amir predicts. "With Benazir at his side, he could do anything. … If people are unhappy with him now, they will question his claim to leadership."
But the widower has strengths. He won respect in the Peoples Party for toughing out his years in prison. Haqqani says Zardari has a populist touch, a sense of humor and genuine concern for the well-being of poor Pakistanis left behind during an apparent economic boom under Musharraf.
Zardari on Sunday announced that the Peoples Party will participate in elections scheduled for Jan. 8. The elections have been in doubt since Bhutto's assassination and the two days of rioting and looting that followed.
Calm returned to Pakistan's streets during the weekend. The country's Election Commission is to discuss today whether to postpone the elections.
The Peoples Party is poised to benefit from a wave of sympathy votes from Pakistanis mourning Bhutto's death. As long as the party keeps the Bhutto family connection, Javed says, "they will sweep the whole country."
"Our foreign policy had relied on her presence as a stabilizing force." —U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
"Her murder is a wake-up call to Muslims and all people of conscience. After she was nearly killed upon her recent return to Pakistan, she could have taken a safe exit. Instead, she chose to stand up and speak out despite the risks." —Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director, American Islamic Congress
"She sacrificed her life for the sake of Pakistan and for the sake of this region." —Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Bhutto earlier on Thursday
Bhutto "risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan and she has been assassinated by cowards who are afraid of democracy." —British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
CRISIS IN PAKISTAN
Bhutto assassinated: Opposition leader killed in suicide attack
OTHER VOICES FROM THE WEB
By Zafar M. Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — The best hope of Pakistan becoming a stable democracy anytime soon may have died with Benazir Bhutto.
She was the closest thing Pakistan had to a Kennedy. Regal, heir to a tragedy-stricken political dynasty, her rhetorical skills sharpened at Harvard and Oxford, the two-time prime minister was the public face of the democratic, pro-Western leadership the U.S. government wants to see running Pakistan.
But Bhutto on Thursday became a victim of the extremist violence she deplored, killed by a suicide bomber as she left a political rally in her car. Her death ignited rioting across Pakistan, dashed hopes for a smooth transition from a military dictatorship to democracy and raised the possibility of lasting chaos in a nuclear-armed Muslim nation that is on the front lines of the U.S. war on terror.
ASSASSINATION: Pakistan's Bhutto killed in suicide attack
BHUTTO PROFILE: Leader's epic life cut short
COMMUNITIES STUNNED: Pakistani-Americans ponder future
EXPERTS WEIGH IN: Pakistan's stability threatened, they say
Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid last respects to Bhutto as she was buried Friday at her family's mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in southern Sindh province.
A funeral procession began Friday afternoon at her ancestral residence nearby in the southern town of Naudero.
"Her murder removes not only a glamorous and popular personality, the loss is a blow to the idea of a liberal, moderate Pakistan," Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Cohen said in a statement.
Finger-pointing over who was behind her death began immediately, and threatened to tear apart a nation divided among Islamist extremists, a secular elite and a powerful military. President Pervez Musharraf blamed terrorists. Bhutto supporters, including a cousin, blamed Musharraf.
The assassination also thrust terrorism back into the spotlight of the U.S. presidential campaign and prompted the condemnation of governments around the world. "The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President Bush said.
Her death poses a dilemma for the Bush administration, which had pressured Musharraf to let Bhutto end eight years of exile and return to Pakistan in October as part of an effort to restore civilian democracy and some degree of stability.
Despite two tenures as prime minister that ended prematurely amid allegations of corruption, Bhutto offered a unique, perhaps irreplaceable mix: She was a popular, charismatic speaker capable of charming the Western world, and she had vowed to crack down on the Islamist militants that Washington sees a threat in neighboring Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region.
There is no obvious heir within Bhutto's party. And because other opposition leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, are vowing in the aftermath of Bhutto's death to boycott parliamentary elections that had been planned for Jan. 8, democracy in the Muslim nation could be put on hold indefinitely.
"It's going to be a big setback," said retired major general Naseer Ullah Babar, who was a high-ranking official in the governments of Bhutto and her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was prime minister during the 1970s. "She had the courage to take the extremists on," Babar said. "None of the others do."
Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said Friday the government had no immediate plan to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite the growing chaos and a top opposition leader's decision to boycott the poll.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference. "We will consult all the political parties to take any decision about it."
Amid so much uncertainty, the U.S. government may have no other choice but to more closely embrace Musharraf, said Steven Clemons, director of foreign policy programs for the New America Foundation. Musharraf has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight terrorism and is regarded by Bush as a key ally, despite the continued strength of al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Pakistan.
The Bush administration had hoped Bhutto could share power with Musharraf, pairing her democratic credentials with his military support. Now, Clemons said, "we're stuck" with Musharraf.
Continuing to support Musharraf has its perils for the United States, and could unsettle things in Pakistan even further. The former general's popularity has declined steadily since he seized power in a 1999 coup, and many Pakistanis are keen for democracy to return. Musharraf himself has been the target of several assassination attempts.
"This is a bad day for Pakistan," said Daniel Markey, Pakistan specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's a bad day for the United States. I think we're going to be paying a price for it for a while."
An opportunity for Musharraf?
The uncertainty comes at a time when Pakistan is already one of the shakiest fronts in U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Taliban militants have seized territory along the lawless northwestern frontier and often cross the border to fight U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, where violence this year reached its highest level since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, also is thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Meanwhile, extremists have terrorized moderate Muslims, carrying out suicide attacks, torching girls' schools and shutting down video stores, barbershops and other places they believe promote a lifestyle that violates their brand of Islam. Musharraf cited the extremist threat when he suspended the constitution in October and rounded up thousands of political opponents, silenced independent television stations and purged the courts of judges he didn't like. The state of emergency ended two weeks ago.
"It was very unstable in Pakistan before this assassination," said Anthony Cordesman, military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Certainly in virtually every area, things are likely to get worse."
Markey described a "worst-case scenario" in which "the level of violence in the streets gets out of hand," the army can't regain control and Pakistan "conceivably melts down."
Even if chaos continues, Cordesman said, the military is unlikely to lose control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal: Such weapons "are not where public riots or demonstrations can affect them, and there is no reason the military should become unstable or their security should be compromised."
Washington has long promoted democracy in Pakistan as a way of limiting the appeal of Islamist extremists. But the United States had been criticized by Bhutto and others for steadfastly supporting Musharraf since he joined the U.S. war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.
Musharraf sidelined secular democratic parties, such as those led by Bhutto and Sharif, and allowed fundamentalist parties to gain influence in a nation where they have received little public support. America's "bad policy choices are coming home to roost," political analyst Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha said.
Musharraf could use Bhutto's death as a chance to reach out to political foes, said Wendy Chamberlin, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. Either way, Musharraf must find a way "of picking up the pieces of this situation so that it doesn't lead to repression, doesn't lead to a military dictatorship and doesn't lead to less freedom."
She complained about security
Bhutto's enemies were not limited to Islamist extremists. She had criticized Musharraf repeatedly, blaming him for undermining democracy, and had called for his resignation. She had challenged the military and intelligence services by announcing she would allow the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to question A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist accused of sharing technology and expertise with Iran and North Korea.
In an e-mail obtained by CNN, Bhutto told close adviser and former U.S. diplomat Mark Siegel in October that she would hold Musharraf responsible if she were killed. "I have been made to feel insecure by his minions," she wrote, blaming the president for not providing her with adequate security after her return to Pakistan.
At least 20 others were killed in Thursday's attack. After learning of her death, Bhutto supporters gathered outside the hospital began shouting, "Musharraf dog!" Others swarmed into the streets in Rawalpindi and Bhutto's stronghold of Karachi, torching cars, burning tires and throwing stones.
Violence intensified in some cities Friday. A mob in Karachi looted three banks and set them on fire, police said.
About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. In the capital, Islamabad, about 100 protesters burned tires in a commercial quarter of the city.
Paramilitary rangers were given the authority to use live fire to stop rioters from damaging property in southern Pakistan, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman.
"We have orders to shoot at sight," he said.
Violent mobs burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Bhutto's Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between the city of Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official. The rioters uprooted one section of the track leading to the Indian border, he said.
About 4,000 Bhutto party supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday and several hundred of them ransacked the office of the main pro-Musharraf party, burning furniture and stationery. The office was empty and no one was hurt.
Protesters, carrying the green, red and black flags of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party shouted "Musharraf dog" and "Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today." In Peshawar, protesters also burned the office of a small party allied with Musharraf.Other areas were nearly deserted Friday morning as businesses closed and public transportation came to a halt at the start of three days of national mourning for the opposition leader.
"The repercussions of her murder will continue to unfold for months, even years," read a mournful editorial in the Dawn newspaper. "What is clear is that Pakistan's political landscape will never be the same, having lost one of its finest daughters."
Asim Bhutto, a cousin of Benazir Bhutto who lives in Britain, told the BBC he blamed Musharraf for his cousin's death. "She was killed in Rawalpindi by a dictator," Asim Bhutto said. "I blame the government for the whole plot."
Retired major general Babar said security at the rally Bhutto attended Thursday was lax. "Where were the police?" he asked.
Bhutto's death leaves a powerful political party leaderless. "That's one of the problems with Pakistani politics; it is personality-driven," said Xenia Dormandy, who headed the National Security Council's South Asia desk in 2004. "Pakistan is in a worrisome, worrisome place today, much more so than it was yesterday."
U.S. candidates weigh in
On the presidential campaign trail in the USA, Bhutto's slaying had candidates talking about the need for experienced leadership to handle international crises. Republican Rudy Giuliani said Bhutto's death was "a reminder that terrorism anywhere — whether in New York, London, Tel Aviv or Rawalpindi — is an enemy of freedom."
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Bhutto's popularity was evidence that "there is a significant moderate, secular middle class who want democracy" in Pakistan." He called on Bush to maintain pressure on Musharraf to hold elections.
Leaders in Pakistan were haunted by the apparent end of a political dynasty that had shaped their politics for three decades.
Babar recalled Zulfikar Ali Bhutto saying that members of his family never lived past their mid-50s. He was right. He was overthrown as prime minister in 1977 and later executed by the military. Now his daughter is dead. "He went at 51," Babar said. "She is gone at 54."
Zafar M. Sheikh reported from Pakistan; Paul Wiseman from Hong Kong. Contributing: Ken Dilanian in Washington; Marisol Bello in McLean, Va.; Jeff Stinson in London; Kathy Kiely in Des Moines; Associated Press.
Updated 12/28/2007 8:58 AM Comment Recommend E-mail Print Reprints & Permissions
Pakistan's Bhutto assassinated
Hours after her assassination, supporters carried her coffin from Rawalpindi General Hospital to a waiting vehicle. Some people smashed glass and wailed.Across Pakistan, thousands chanted slogans against the government and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Angry people torched tires, vehicles, a train and a gas station. One man died in the violence.
In a nationally televised speech, Musharraf blamed terrorists for Bhutto's death and said he would redouble his efforts to fight them.
"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "I have been saying that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists. I express my resolve that — and I also seek solidarity from the nation and cooperation and help — we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
Musharraf announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, 54, during which the national flag will fly at half-staff for the former prime minister.
He also called for calm across the country.
President Bush spoke to Musharaff by phone from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Details about what they said were not available, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Earlier, in a brief statement, Bush said "the U.S. strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy. Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice."
He praised Bhutto for confronting the forces of terror and urged the people of Pakistan "to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life."
Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif called on Musharaff to resign immediately and said he would boycott Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
The two-time prime minister said he rushed to the hospital where Bhutto died and sat silently next to her body.
Hours before Bhutto's death, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.
Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving a campaign rally in a park in Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. He then blew himself up.
John Moore, a photographer for Getty Images, took pictures of Bhutto moments before she was shot. Bhutto was standing in the sunroof of a vehicle when the shots were fired.
Early reports contained conflicting accounts of whether Bhutto was killed by gunfire or the blast.
"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," said police officer Mohammad Shahid.
Officials at the hospital said Bhutto had been hit by two bullets — one in the neck and one in the head.
Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.
She died about an hour after the attack.
The Associated Press reported that a doctor on the team that treated her said Bhutto had a bullet in the back of the neck that damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head.
Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, said the doctor, who didn't want to be identified.
He said Bhutto was given open heart massage, but the main cause of death was damage to her spinal cord.
At least 20 others died in the attack.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said at a news conference that the Pakistani government "has done its best" to protect Bhutto.
"It was a large rally. ... There are masses of people moving around. ... The world's best security can have limitations," he said.
In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters set tires on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official.
Bhutto's son maintains political dynasty
Pakistan — Standing before the cameras Sunday, bespectacled 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari looked more like a South Asian Harry Potter than the newly crowned leader of a powerful political movement.
But the Oxford University student had the only qualification he needed to become chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party: He's the son of party leader Benazir Bhutto, slain by an assassin on Thursday. And he's the grandson of the party's charismatic founder, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was overthrown and executed by the military three decades ago.
The young Bhutto Zardari "represents a bloodline to a family of martyrs," says former party adviser Husain Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for International Relations.
"The Pakistan Peoples Party isn't the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. It's the Bhutto family party," says Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the newspaper Dawn and parliamentary candidate for a rival political party.
In choosing a teenager, the Peoples Party overlooked experienced contenders such as lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, who rose to prominence leading pro-democracy protests against President Pervez Musharraf. "The Peoples Party won't accept anyone but a Bhutto," political commentator Zaheer Javed says.
Haqqani says dynasties are part of the landscape in South Asia, where political institutions are weak and personalities dominate. India has the Gandhis, and Pakistan the Bhuttos — political royalty with histories of triumph and tragedy.
Longtime Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, daughter of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was gunned down by her bodyguards in 1984. After her death, her Congress Party turned to her untested son, Rajiv.
"I remember reading many analyses saying the Congress Party is dead now," Haqqani recalls. "In the end, it was the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that survived."
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. His widow, Sonia Gandhi, now heads the Congress Party and is the power behind Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Similarly, Haqqani expects the Bhutto dynasty to endure.
For the time being, the Peoples Party will be in the hands of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto Zardari's father and Bhutto's husband. He'll run the organization while his son finishes school. Zardari brings baggage: He spent eight years in jail for corruption and is derisively known as "Mr. 10%" for allegedly taking kickbacks.
"Zardari will face a problem of legitimacy," columnist Amir predicts. "With Benazir at his side, he could do anything. … If people are unhappy with him now, they will question his claim to leadership."
But the widower has strengths. He won respect in the Peoples Party for toughing out his years in prison. Haqqani says Zardari has a populist touch, a sense of humor and genuine concern for the well-being of poor Pakistanis left behind during an apparent economic boom under Musharraf.
Zardari on Sunday announced that the Peoples Party will participate in elections scheduled for Jan. 8. The elections have been in doubt since Bhutto's assassination and the two days of rioting and looting that followed.
Calm returned to Pakistan's streets during the weekend. The country's Election Commission is to discuss today whether to postpone the elections.
The Peoples Party is poised to benefit from a wave of sympathy votes from Pakistanis mourning Bhutto's death. As long as the party keeps the Bhutto family connection, Javed says, "they will sweep the whole country."
REACTION TO BHUTTO'S DEATH
"We urge (Pakistanis) to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life." —President Bush
"I want to express my resolve and seek the cooperation from the entire nation, and we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out." —Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
"Benazir Bhutto was my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death." —Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, speaking to Bhutto supporters late Thursday
Bhutto's slaying "demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy." —Tom Casey, U.S. State Department
"Our foreign policy had relied on her presence as a stabilizing force." —U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
"Her murder is a wake-up call to Muslims and all people of conscience. After she was nearly killed upon her recent return to Pakistan, she could have taken a safe exit. Instead, she chose to stand up and speak out despite the risks." —Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director, American Islamic Congress
"She sacrificed her life for the sake of Pakistan and for the sake of this region." —Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Bhutto earlier on Thursday
Bhutto "risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan and she has been assassinated by cowards who are afraid of democracy." —British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
CRISIS IN PAKISTAN
Bhutto assassinated: Opposition leader killed in suicide attack
OTHER VOICES FROM THE WEB
By Zafar M. Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — The best hope of Pakistan becoming a stable democracy anytime soon may have died with Benazir Bhutto.
She was the closest thing Pakistan had to a Kennedy. Regal, heir to a tragedy-stricken political dynasty, her rhetorical skills sharpened at Harvard and Oxford, the two-time prime minister was the public face of the democratic, pro-Western leadership the U.S. government wants to see running Pakistan.
But Bhutto on Thursday became a victim of the extremist violence she deplored, killed by a suicide bomber as she left a political rally in her car. Her death ignited rioting across Pakistan, dashed hopes for a smooth transition from a military dictatorship to democracy and raised the possibility of lasting chaos in a nuclear-armed Muslim nation that is on the front lines of the U.S. war on terror.
ASSASSINATION: Pakistan's Bhutto killed in suicide attack
BHUTTO PROFILE: Leader's epic life cut short
COMMUNITIES STUNNED: Pakistani-Americans ponder future
EXPERTS WEIGH IN: Pakistan's stability threatened, they say
Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid last respects to Bhutto as she was buried Friday at her family's mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in southern Sindh province.
A funeral procession began Friday afternoon at her ancestral residence nearby in the southern town of Naudero.
"Her murder removes not only a glamorous and popular personality, the loss is a blow to the idea of a liberal, moderate Pakistan," Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Cohen said in a statement.
Finger-pointing over who was behind her death began immediately, and threatened to tear apart a nation divided among Islamist extremists, a secular elite and a powerful military. President Pervez Musharraf blamed terrorists. Bhutto supporters, including a cousin, blamed Musharraf.
The assassination also thrust terrorism back into the spotlight of the U.S. presidential campaign and prompted the condemnation of governments around the world. "The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President Bush said.
Her death poses a dilemma for the Bush administration, which had pressured Musharraf to let Bhutto end eight years of exile and return to Pakistan in October as part of an effort to restore civilian democracy and some degree of stability.
Despite two tenures as prime minister that ended prematurely amid allegations of corruption, Bhutto offered a unique, perhaps irreplaceable mix: She was a popular, charismatic speaker capable of charming the Western world, and she had vowed to crack down on the Islamist militants that Washington sees a threat in neighboring Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region.
There is no obvious heir within Bhutto's party. And because other opposition leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, are vowing in the aftermath of Bhutto's death to boycott parliamentary elections that had been planned for Jan. 8, democracy in the Muslim nation could be put on hold indefinitely.
"It's going to be a big setback," said retired major general Naseer Ullah Babar, who was a high-ranking official in the governments of Bhutto and her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was prime minister during the 1970s. "She had the courage to take the extremists on," Babar said. "None of the others do."
Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said Friday the government had no immediate plan to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite the growing chaos and a top opposition leader's decision to boycott the poll.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference. "We will consult all the political parties to take any decision about it."
Amid so much uncertainty, the U.S. government may have no other choice but to more closely embrace Musharraf, said Steven Clemons, director of foreign policy programs for the New America Foundation. Musharraf has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight terrorism and is regarded by Bush as a key ally, despite the continued strength of al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Pakistan.
The Bush administration had hoped Bhutto could share power with Musharraf, pairing her democratic credentials with his military support. Now, Clemons said, "we're stuck" with Musharraf.
Continuing to support Musharraf has its perils for the United States, and could unsettle things in Pakistan even further. The former general's popularity has declined steadily since he seized power in a 1999 coup, and many Pakistanis are keen for democracy to return. Musharraf himself has been the target of several assassination attempts.
"This is a bad day for Pakistan," said Daniel Markey, Pakistan specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's a bad day for the United States. I think we're going to be paying a price for it for a while."
An opportunity for Musharraf?
The uncertainty comes at a time when Pakistan is already one of the shakiest fronts in U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Taliban militants have seized territory along the lawless northwestern frontier and often cross the border to fight U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, where violence this year reached its highest level since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, also is thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Meanwhile, extremists have terrorized moderate Muslims, carrying out suicide attacks, torching girls' schools and shutting down video stores, barbershops and other places they believe promote a lifestyle that violates their brand of Islam. Musharraf cited the extremist threat when he suspended the constitution in October and rounded up thousands of political opponents, silenced independent television stations and purged the courts of judges he didn't like. The state of emergency ended two weeks ago.
"It was very unstable in Pakistan before this assassination," said Anthony Cordesman, military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Certainly in virtually every area, things are likely to get worse."
Markey described a "worst-case scenario" in which "the level of violence in the streets gets out of hand," the army can't regain control and Pakistan "conceivably melts down."
Even if chaos continues, Cordesman said, the military is unlikely to lose control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal: Such weapons "are not where public riots or demonstrations can affect them, and there is no reason the military should become unstable or their security should be compromised."
Washington has long promoted democracy in Pakistan as a way of limiting the appeal of Islamist extremists. But the United States had been criticized by Bhutto and others for steadfastly supporting Musharraf since he joined the U.S. war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.
Musharraf sidelined secular democratic parties, such as those led by Bhutto and Sharif, and allowed fundamentalist parties to gain influence in a nation where they have received little public support. America's "bad policy choices are coming home to roost," political analyst Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha said.
Musharraf could use Bhutto's death as a chance to reach out to political foes, said Wendy Chamberlin, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. Either way, Musharraf must find a way "of picking up the pieces of this situation so that it doesn't lead to repression, doesn't lead to a military dictatorship and doesn't lead to less freedom."
She complained about security
Bhutto's enemies were not limited to Islamist extremists. She had criticized Musharraf repeatedly, blaming him for undermining democracy, and had called for his resignation. She had challenged the military and intelligence services by announcing she would allow the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to question A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist accused of sharing technology and expertise with Iran and North Korea.
In an e-mail obtained by CNN, Bhutto told close adviser and former U.S. diplomat Mark Siegel in October that she would hold Musharraf responsible if she were killed. "I have been made to feel insecure by his minions," she wrote, blaming the president for not providing her with adequate security after her return to Pakistan.
At least 20 others were killed in Thursday's attack. After learning of her death, Bhutto supporters gathered outside the hospital began shouting, "Musharraf dog!" Others swarmed into the streets in Rawalpindi and Bhutto's stronghold of Karachi, torching cars, burning tires and throwing stones.
Violence intensified in some cities Friday. A mob in Karachi looted three banks and set them on fire, police said.
About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. In the capital, Islamabad, about 100 protesters burned tires in a commercial quarter of the city.
Paramilitary rangers were given the authority to use live fire to stop rioters from damaging property in southern Pakistan, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman.
"We have orders to shoot at sight," he said.
Violent mobs burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Bhutto's Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between the city of Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official. The rioters uprooted one section of the track leading to the Indian border, he said.
About 4,000 Bhutto party supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday and several hundred of them ransacked the office of the main pro-Musharraf party, burning furniture and stationery. The office was empty and no one was hurt.
Protesters, carrying the green, red and black flags of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party shouted "Musharraf dog" and "Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today." In Peshawar, protesters also burned the office of a small party allied with Musharraf.Other areas were nearly deserted Friday morning as businesses closed and public transportation came to a halt at the start of three days of national mourning for the opposition leader.
"The repercussions of her murder will continue to unfold for months, even years," read a mournful editorial in the Dawn newspaper. "What is clear is that Pakistan's political landscape will never be the same, having lost one of its finest daughters."
Asim Bhutto, a cousin of Benazir Bhutto who lives in Britain, told the BBC he blamed Musharraf for his cousin's death. "She was killed in Rawalpindi by a dictator," Asim Bhutto said. "I blame the government for the whole plot."
Retired major general Babar said security at the rally Bhutto attended Thursday was lax. "Where were the police?" he asked.
Bhutto's death leaves a powerful political party leaderless. "That's one of the problems with Pakistani politics; it is personality-driven," said Xenia Dormandy, who headed the National Security Council's South Asia desk in 2004. "Pakistan is in a worrisome, worrisome place today, much more so than it was yesterday."
U.S. candidates weigh in
On the presidential campaign trail in the USA, Bhutto's slaying had candidates talking about the need for experienced leadership to handle international crises. Republican Rudy Giuliani said Bhutto's death was "a reminder that terrorism anywhere — whether in New York, London, Tel Aviv or Rawalpindi — is an enemy of freedom."
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Bhutto's popularity was evidence that "there is a significant moderate, secular middle class who want democracy" in Pakistan." He called on Bush to maintain pressure on Musharraf to hold elections.
Leaders in Pakistan were haunted by the apparent end of a political dynasty that had shaped their politics for three decades.
Babar recalled Zulfikar Ali Bhutto saying that members of his family never lived past their mid-50s. He was right. He was overthrown as prime minister in 1977 and later executed by the military. Now his daughter is dead. "He went at 51," Babar said. "She is gone at 54."
Zafar M. Sheikh reported from Pakistan; Paul Wiseman from Hong Kong. Contributing: Ken Dilanian in Washington; Marisol Bello in McLean, Va.; Jeff Stinson in London; Kathy Kiely in Des Moines; Associated Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment