The Canadian Press: Benazir Bhutto shot dead at suicide bombing of rally; 20 feared dead

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.

bush is going to make a statement "condemning" the assassination within the next hour. thank god, i mean, what would this all mean if bush didn't publicly disapprove? i wouldn't know what to think!

I've only ever heard it reported that countries condemn attacks. I've never heard what they actually say. Do they have a "condemnation of terrorist attack" template on Word or something? I'd like to know.



Does kinda make you wonder if they (you know, Them) get at all weary of condemning stuff though, doesn't it? Like, someone must've suggested at some point: "OK, so we condemn these attacks every time they happen, and they don't stop doing it. Maybe, if they're just trying to piss us off, we should support them? What have we got to lose?", possibly followed by "Maybe we should condemn terrorists for buying us ice cream sundaes? Might work, you never know"

So sad, this world we all live in.

I saw an interview with her on CNN a while back where she was pretty forthright with the fact that she could die any day. Imagine living like that and not losing your fire?

Oh goddamn. This is going to be a messed up year....

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The Leader Osama Bin Laden says you got that right.. Bin laden has or will soon have control of massive amounts of nuclear weapons of the fission type.

The Leader Osama Bin Laden is soon to make his announcement in the coming days verifying they have control of nuclear weapons.

Bin Laden will also state.... Hey President Bush and vice president Cheney why are you so surprised of the turning events.

Thanks you former President Clinton the U.S. does not have any type of effective nuclear defense mechanism in place to actually protect United States. The U.S. just has things it claims that can protect United States. It looks good on paper but it doesn't work..

Oh cock off Zoanthropy. Your "insight" is amusing in Britney threads but the last thing we need in political issues is you asking what Paris Hilton has to do wth it.

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That really blows. I was pulling for her....despite the massive corruption charges and scandals. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to whether they were really entirely her fault. I think she could have done great things for the country.

exactaly.

this sort of thing really scares me... that mostly peaceful, educated, smart, revolutionary, (women), politicans, people for change and equality can be erased... so quickly, by one angry person's bullets or bomb; and that's it.

I agree with Orchestral on this one. This news is so tragic on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. This woman was so courageous and would probably have changed a lot of Middle Eastern relations had she survived, (not to mention the rights and freedoms of millions of women), since it was so likely that she would have won. (I don't really care about the corruption charges and stuff because sometimes extreme measures are necessary to break through such a corrupt regime....the ends justifying the means and all that stuff).

I can only hope that when her children grow up, they can at least take pride in knowing how brave their mother was in standing up for so many.

Hopefully someone else in Pakistan will be angered enough by her assassination to pick up where she left off and not let those bastards keep the status quo of oppression. Then that senseless murder will have paid off.

I know I've basically just drooled all over the place with this post, but that news just really bummed me out and I just wanted to say so. What a loss to the world this was.

gandhi's still remembered.



i sense a Benazir Bhutto tee coming on.

Gandhi went to extremes to get his campaign noticed though.



and thus is remembered.

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is the green supposed to be there, like spittle?

my mum woke me up to tell me this this morning. how sad. and unfortunately, how unsurprising.

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yeah.

its totally depressing.. and terrifying

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no no never say maybe to smack bunny baby again.

Too bad this had to happen. Despite any sort of corruption (whether true or alleged), she was a positive force for Pakistan and the wider region.

Even though it was expected, it was still a terrible shock and a tragedy. It is a shame that such bravery in returning to politics in such a volatile region has paid off so tragically. What kind of cowardly bastards are so afraid of a woman's words challenging theirs that they would kill her just to silence her.

P.S. I fear she may have been guilty on all those corruption charges. But still, no reason whatsoever to assassinate her. Has anyone else noticed the word "ass" is in assassin? How apt.

At one of her last rally's, she campained that her country didn't need outside forces, that they could take care of this themselves. She called for her people to fight their own terrorism at home. That this was the path to freedom. Basically, get of your ass and clean up your own problems. Thank you. This should be a lesson to all.

Not much to add that hasn't been said already here.
Just wondering how old her kids were?! Im sure they're proud and everything but I wouldnt let my mum do anything of the sort you know?!

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"I go through life like a Karate Kid"

I guess a potential upside to this is that it seems to be getting a lot of the rational democratic population at least half as pissed off as the lunatic extremists. The irony of terrorism is that it's used by a tiny minority to affect the minds of an aquiescent public who will trade safety for liberty. I can see this backfiring massively, since it's basically made it clear that even being a good person won't keep you safe.

The corruption thing... I don't know, they say history's written by the winners, and I suspect there's maybe 2% of all politicians who aren't corrupt. Stuff usually comes out when the press decide it should, not when it actually happens or the minute it is revealed to them.

EDIT: I don't want to white-wash her or anything, I'm sure she had a few skeletons buried. It's just that, as a politician, she was a relatively good thing, and I'm guessing corruption charges were levelled at her because they knew she'd be less likely to just round up the press and have them all shot.