Benazir Bhutto Assassinated In Pakistan
This is very bad, indeed. Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated as she was trying to leave a rally in Pakistan. At least 14 of her supporters were also murdered in the suicide attack. CNN is running with a report that Bhutto appeared to have been shot, but take that with a grain of salt – suicide bombers are well known for packing their devices with ball bearings and other shrapnel – and a ball bearing wound looks just like a bullet wound.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, doctors, a spokesman for her party and other officials said.
Bhutto suffered bullet wounds in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks were reporting.
Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets as a shocked Pakistan absorbed the news of Bhutto's assassination.
Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle to leave the rally.
Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital — less than two miles from the bombing scene — where doctors pronounced her dead.
Pakistan has a real problem right now. This is going to get very ugly. I sincerely hope the US has contingency plans about securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal – they may be needed.
UPDATE: Sky News reports that there was a shooting involved and that the suicide attacker shot Bhutto before blowing himself up.
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack at a political rally.
She was shot in the chest and neck shortly after her speech in Rawalpindi. Ms Bhutto was attacked as she got into her car and the gunman then blew himself up.
War, World news | Gaius December 27, 2007
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Benazir Bhutto Assassinated In Pakistan « Liberty Just in Case — December 27, 2007 @ 8:43 am
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By NortonPete, December 27, 2007 @ 11:25 am
On the bbc uk site they have about 10 pictures of her at this final rally. I know that Pakistan is a very colorful country but I was struck by what Ms Bhutto was wearing. She had bright red and white floral necklaces over a dark blue dress it made her look like a target. You couldn’t miss her from 25 yards even if you were a bad shot. I wonder who gave her those to wear?
I don’t think she realized how much Pakistan has changed since 1999. She didn’t have a chance. A shame.
By quilly mammoth, December 27, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
It’s very hard to remember that the people who did this represent the radical extreme of Islam and not all muslims. AQ and thrir ilk want to drag us back to a mysoginistic, 11th century theocracy. Moderate muslims need to wake up because sooner or later AQ is going to do something that awakens the long dormant Northern European berserker that lays just beneath our civilized shell.
They won’t like that very much.
By rightwingprof, December 28, 2007 @ 5:32 am
Bad in the sense that a human being was murdered, yes. Politically bad? No, not really. Bhutto would have been a disaster. Musharraf may be only sometimes reliable and a dictator, but until the jihadists, who have nearly majority support in Pakistan, are killed, he’s the only option that would not be a disaster.