"I DIDN'T CHOOSE THIS LIFE. IT CHOSE ME."— Benazir Bhutto in Daughter of the East In the half-light of winter dusk, in the space of a few moments, the life of a nation struggling for equilibrium was forever transformed. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto had been anticipated given the churning within Pakistan. It had been predicted, given Bhutto’s willingness to deal with a military dictator who had only grudgingly given up his uniform. It had even been forewarned, as a suicide bomber blew himself up within 100 metre of her armoured car, killing 140 on October 18, the day Bhutto returned from an exile that lasted nearly eight years. But when both bullet and bomb cut short the life of the woman who could have been prime minister again, the seismic aftershocks ripped through not just her traumatised nation, but the entire world. With trouble raging in its western regions, reports of widespread Talibanisation on its frontiers and unrest in its army, Pakistan was headed for the first election in six years that would feature the country’s two main political leaders— Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. A state of emergency had just been lifted and it appeared to be Pakistan’s best chance to shake off General Pervez Musharraf’s iron-fisted control of the government. To tilt the political balance back towards genuine democracy and get rid of the unpleasant label of The Most Dangerous Place On Earth. As the sun set over the garrison town of Rawalpindi and took Bhutto with it, all bets were off. After addressing a rally in Liaquat Bagh, twotime prime minister Bhutto, clad in purple rather than the customary campaign green, wearing fashionable glasses, garlands and her broadest smile, boarded her bulletproof white Toyota Landcruiser. Benazir at the Rawalpindi rally, minutes before her deathClose to 50,000 people, including thousands of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) loyalists, had heard Bhutto speak in the sprawling park. The Bagh, where the first Pakistani prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951, already had a bloody history but no one seemed to remember. The crowd was ebullient, energised by Bhutto’s election speech.PPP workers, chanting slogans of “Prime minister Benazir Bhutto” surrounded her SUV, forcing the driver to bring it to a halt. Here, versions differ. According to one, Bhutto appeared through the sun-roof to wave at the crowds. According to another, a blast in the park made her look through the roof to see what had caused it. The moment she did that, it happened (Graphic: The bullet and bomb attack).Less than five metres from the SUV, a thin, young man pulled out an AK47 and fired at her five times. Bhutto took a hit in the neck and the chest, and fell. As her startled security moved to act, the shooter, or someone close to him, blew himself up, killing 30 people and damaging her SUV further. Some reports say she lay dying for close to 10 minutes after that as people kept away from the vehicle fearing another blast. Her temple had been pierced, either by a bullet or by one of the ball bearings usually packed into a suicide belt.She was rushed to the nearby semiequipped Rawalpindi General Hospital in a critical condition and was declared dead at 6.16 p.m. local time. When a PPP official confirmed the worst half an hour later, saying, “Mohtarma has been martyred,” a wail of anguish broke out from the crowd. It responded with anger, smashing the door to the emergency unit of the hospital and with the news, violence spread across Pakistan like a bloodstain.Sitting inside the hospital in stunned silence was Sharif, former prime minister and Bhutto’s most bitter political adversary. To Bhutto’s grief-stricken supporters he said later, “Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take revenge on the rulers.” Sharif, recently barred for life from contesting elections, moved swiftly announcing that his party the Pakistan Muslim League would not contest the forthcoming elections, calling them, “meaningless.”Bhutto’s assassination has sent the already heated political temperatures in Pakistan soaring. There was speculation over whether Musharraf would reimpose emergency he had liftedthis month. For many, Bhutto’s death is a clear message to the president. “We believe Musharraf should step down nowÂ… what is he waiting for?” said Qazi Hussain, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami which had already boycotted the polls. PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said the party would demand postponement of elections to observe a traditional 40-day mourning. “We can’t go for elections in such a situation,” he said.Following the news of her death, Pakistan’s government went into overdrive to insist it had done all it could to keep the country’s chief prime ministerial candidate secure. A harried-looking Musharraf named generic “terrorists” responsible, and announced three-day state mourning, sending Rangers pouring on to city streets. “This is nothing less than an earthquake,” commented a newscaster on Aaj TV, “We are all in a state of shock.” The millions of tears that were shed had probably as much to do with the fear of what this tragedy means for Pakistan’s future as with the loss of one of the country’s most charismatic albeit controversial daughters.Bhutto’s return from exile was driven by the fading of Musharraf’s authority and her determination to stake a claim to power. It meant that in the hour that she was the most vulnerable, Bhutto was also the most alone.At the time of her death her son Bilawal was at Oxford while her husband Asif Ali Zardari and her two daughters— Bakhtawar and Asifa—were at home in Dubai. Bhutto’s ailing mother Nusrat, who suffers from dementia and lives with them, was not immediately informed of her death. Bhutto’s funeral in her village of Larkana in Sind will be all the more poignant as she will be buried in a grave next to her father.For millions of Pakistanis the memories of the unnatural deaths of the charismatic but unfortunate members of the Bhutto clan—the Camelot of Pakistani politics —are still fresh: how Bhutto’s father Zulfiqar Ali was hanged by a military dictator in 1979 in what was later termed a “judicial murder”, how her brother Shahnawaz was mysteriously poisoned in Cannes in 1985 and how her other brother Murtaza was shot dead in a controversial police encounter in Karachi during her own prime ministerial tenure in 1996. Despite personal setbacks and persistent rumours of corruption when in office, Bhutto was an indefatigable politician and a resolute believer in democracy for Pakistan.Under Musharraf, as her country slipped over the boundary that divided the theological state from the hardline Islamist nation, Bhutto was always bound to be a moving target. A woman, an awoved liberal, and an advocate for a reduction in the role of the army in government, Bhutto’s enemies comprised an entire powerful demographic of hardline clergy, Talibani elements in the country’s polity and Islamist military men. Anyone, or all of them could have been part of the conspiracy to assassinate Bhutto.The day before she was killed Pakistani security agencies had put political parties on high alert with the warning that ‘terrorists’ might strike against leading politicians. The Bhutto killing came after three days of consecutive crippling bomb blasts, starting with the Id blast in Sherpao village in Pakistan’s unruly north west where former minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao was the intended target.Pakistan’s turmoil could churn its internal political dynamic. Lt Gen Talat Masood , a former secretary of defence production, believes the nation state will hold. The new military chief General Ashfaq Kiani is expected to make the moment his own, says Masood, adding that, “The army is not keen on running the affairs of the state anymore”.The scene of the Rawalpindi blastThe only other way that Pakistan could have some degree of control over its own political future is through the banding together of its political parties in a concerted effort to send Musharraf into oblivion and bring democracy back to a country which has lost not just its most prominent leader, but also its confidence.Post Bhutto, should the PPP flounder or splinter, it would not bode well as it remains the only political party with roots in all provinces with some analysts already questioning the future of federational politics. “If PPP were to become marginalised, we would have only the army left as a federational force,” says Islamabad-based Pakistan editor of the BBC Aamer Ahmed Khan. Shortly before she returned to Pakistan in October Bhutto had written in a column for the Washington Post, “I do not know what awaits me, personally or politically... I pray for the best and prepare for the worst... I am going home to fight for the restoration of Pakistan’s place in the community of democratic nations.” Her eventful life could not achieve that dream but Bhutto’s tragic death could become its own lasting and powerful legacy.Watch assassination video In Pics: The suicide attackIn Pics: Bhutto's last visit to IndiaIn Pics: Portrait of BenazirAudio: Bhutto's last public speech in India | Watch Video Seedhi Baat with Benazir: Part 1 Seedhi Baat with Benazir: Part 2 I am missing my home: Benazir Bhutto on Musharraf's retirement as army chief Bhutto's death could lead to national reconciliationPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 28, 2007 15:55 IST--- ENDS ---
