These are the events that can kick off revolutions, civil wars, and even God forbid world wars…
Let’s hope and pray this will be a more bloodless revolution.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318510,00.html
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a homicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally.
The former prime minister died in Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she had been rushed to surgery after she was wounded in the attack.
There were reports that Bhutto had been shot in the neck as she was leaving the scene of the bombing.
“At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at the hospital.
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. Top party leaders were outside the hospital, crying.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park in Rawalpindi, where the rally was held.
He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded.
The road outside was stained with blood and people screamed for ambulances. Others gave water to the wounded lying in the street. The clothing of some of the victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies.
The bomb went off just minutes after Bhutto spoke to thousands of supporters, and she appeared to be the target of the attack. Farahtullah Babar, the spokesman for her party, said her vehicle was about 50 yards away from blast, which went off as she was leaving the rally venue.
UPDATE (MichaelW): Sometimes co-blogger Joshua Foust comments on the assassination:
While I was certainly no fan of her mad quest for power, Ms. Bhutto did not deserve to be murdered. Her death on its own would be yet another tragic event in Pakistan’s very tortured experiment with democracy; given the modern context, however, I suspect very bad things are in store for the country. Look for Musharraf to crack down again, potentially even on the crazies this time. But kiss the January election goodbye.
Finger pointing will begin shortly as to who’s to blame, with the most likely culprits being Pervez Musharraf or Islamic fundamentalists (or maybe even some combination thereof). Josh is laying his money on the fundamentalists:
The New York Times chimes in with a good background story, noting that Bhutto did not blame her last assassination attempt on Musharraf, but rather the Islamic crazies. Whether we decide to think that gave Musharraf room to kill her is up for grabs; I don’t think suicide bombers are his style. This was a classic Islamic crazy attack.
I may disagree with Josh on any number of things, but you would be hard pressed to find a better analyst than Josh blogging about this part of the world. So his thoughts carry a great deal of weight here IMHO. That being said, it would not surprise me to learn that Musharraf’s security forces had something to do with it, whether by sin of commission or omission.
UPDATE II(Keith):
For continuing updates and other blogger reaction, please hop on over to PJM where they have a running list…
UPDATE III (MichaelW): Apparently our commenting feature is on the fritz, so Josh emailed to the following instead:
Thanks for the plug, guys. Two things:
1) Al Qaeda has indeed claimed responsibility.
2) I’ve been doing a lot more background work, both in a darkly snarky interview at Jezebel and as an update to my post. Unfortunately, this assassination makes a lot of sense, but equally unfortunate is just how awful it is for Pakistan. Getting murdered will prompt revenge killings, and possibly a further crackdown by Uncle Pervy.
In other words, while Bhutto wouldn’t have been good for her country in power, she is far worse dead.