On Dec 28, 12:50 am, traveler <Vallec...@aol.com> wrote:

By SADAQAT JAN and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writers
Thu Dec 27, 5:17 PM ET

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was
assassinated Thursday by an attacker who shot her after a campaign
rally and then blew himself up. Her death stoked new chaos across the
nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

At least 20 others were killed in the attack on the rally for Jan. 8
parliamentary elections where the 54-year-old former prime minister
had just spoken.

At least nine people were killed across the country in rioting that
broke out in the aftermath of the assassination. In the southern port
city of Karachi, where she was born, angry Bhutto supporters shot at
police and burned a gas station.

At the hospital where Bhutto died, some supporters smashed glass and
wailed, chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf, whom they
blamed for not ensuring her safety. Musharraf blamed Islamic
extremists for her 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 in a nationally televised speech. "I have been saying
that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists. ...
We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them
out."

In the U.S., a tense looking President Bush strongly condemned the
attack "by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's
democracy." White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush spoke
briefly by phone with Musharraf.

Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, where
they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the elections, an
official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

The government announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, including
the closing of schools, commercial centers and banks.

Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister and leader of a rival
opposition party, demanded Musharraf resign immediately and announced
his party would boycott the upcoming election.

The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed thousands of
supporters in the Rawalpindi, a city 8 miles south of Islamabad where
the army is headquartered. She was shot in the neck and chest by the
attacker, who then blew himself up, said Rehman Malik, Bhutto's
security adviser.

Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party, said at the time of
the attack he was standing about 10 yards away from her vehicle -- a
white, bulletproof SUV with a sunroof.

"She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after
addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans
in her favor. Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle's
roof and responding to their slogans," he said.

"Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back
and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going
away," he added.

Mangled bodies lay in a pool of blood and pieces of clothing and shoes
were scattered on the road. The clothing of some victims was shredded
and people covered their bodies with party flags.

There was an acrid smell of explosive fumes in the air.

Police cordoned off the street and rescuers rushed to put victims in
ambulances as onlookers wailed nearby.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.
She died about an hour after the attack.

Hours later, her body was carried out of the hospital in a plain
wooden coffin by a crowd of supporters. Her body was expected to be
transferred to an air base and brought to her hometown of Larkana.

A doctor on the team that treated her said she 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.

She was given open heart massage, but the main cause of death was
damage to her spinal cord, he said on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"At 6:16 p.m., she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's
party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer
Babar Awan said.

Bhutto's supporters at the hospital exploded in anger, smashing the
glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit. Others burst
into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party
tied around his head was beating his chest.

"I saw her with my own eyes sitting in a vehicle after addressing the
rally. Then, I heard an explosion," Tahir Mahmood, 55, said sobbing.
"I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead."

Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in
her killing.

"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security
and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to
our requests," said Malik, the security adviser.

As news of her death spread, angry supporters took to the streets.

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. Gunmen shot
and wounded two police officers, he said.

One man was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in
Tando Allahyar, a town 120 miles north of Karachi, said Mayor Kanwar
Naveed. In the town of Tando Jam, protesters forced passengers to get
out of a train and then set it on fire.

Two people were killed in the southern Sindh province and two others
in Lahore, police said.

Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and many other
parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto's supporters burned banks, state-run
grocery stores and private shops. Some set fire to election offices
for the ruling party, according to Pakistani media.

Akhtar Zamin, home minister for the southern Sindh province, said
authorities would deploy troops to stop violence if needed.

Musharraf urged calm.

"I want to appeal to the nation to remain peaceful and exercise
restraint," he said.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat from Rhode Island, was in Pakistan
and on his way to have dinner with Bhutto Thursday night when he
learned of her killing.

"You could really feel the tragedy of this loss because Bhutto really
represented hope here for so many people," he said, adding that
turmoil was engulfing much of the country.

"Her death really dashed the hope of many here in Pakistan and that's
why there's so much disillusionment and anger being vented through
these protests that are lighting up the sky tonight as people set
fires all over the countryside," Kennedy told the AP in a telephone
interview.

Sharif arrived at the hospital and sat silently next to Bhutto's
body.

"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the
revenge for her death," he said. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We
will take the revenge on the rulers."

He rebutted suggestions that he could gain political capital from her
demise, announcing his Muslim League-N party would boycott the
elections and demanding that Musharraf resign.

"The holding of fair and free elections is not possible in the
presence of Pervez Musharraf," he said. "Musharraf is the cause of all
the problems. The federation of Pakistan cannot remain intact in the
presence of President Musharraf," he told a news conference.

"After the killing of Benazir Bhutto, I announce that the Pakistan
Muslim League-N will boycott the elections," Sharif said. "I demand
that Musharraf should quit immediately."

Hours earlier, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his
supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.

Bhutto's death will leave a void at the top of her party, the largest
political group in the country, as it heads into the elections.

Pakistan is considered a vital U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida
and other Islamic extremists including the Taliban. Osama bin Laden
and his inner circle are believed to be hiding in lawless northwest
Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.

The U.S. has invested significant diplomatic capital in promoting
reconciliation between Musharraf and the opposition, particularly
Bhutto, who was seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her
party had been widely expected to do well in next month's elections.

Had the PPP either won a majority of seats or enough to put together a
majority coalition, Bhutto could have recaptured the job of prime
minister.

Bush, speaking briefly to reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas,
demanded that those responsible for the killing be brought to
justice.

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous
extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," said
Bush, who looked tense and took no questions.

The assassination and concerns of further international instability
were cited as one reason for a fall in U.S. stock prices and a rise in
oil prices Thursday. In afternoon trade, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average of blue chip stocks was down more than 140 points or more than
1 percent.

The U.N. Security Council also condemned the assassination.

Pakistan was just emerging from another crisis after Musharraf
declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, and used sweeping powers to
round up thousands of his opponents and fire Supreme Court justices.
He ended emergency rule Dec. 15 and subsequently relinquished his role
as army chief, a key opposition demand. Bhutto had been an outspoken
critic of Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.

Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, Bhutto served twice as
Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996.

Her father was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, scion of a wealthy landowning
family in southern Pakistan and founder of the populist Pakistan
People's Party. The elder Bhutto was president and then prime minister
of Pakistan before his ouster in a 1977 military coup. Two years
later, he was executed by the government of Gen. Zia-ul Haq after
being convicted of engineering the murder of a political opponent.

Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18.
On the same day, she narrowly escaped injury when her homecoming
parade in Karachi was targeted in a suicide attack that killed more
than 140 people.

Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban hated Bhutto for
her close ties to the Americans and support for the war on terrorism.
A local Taliban leader reportedly threatened to greet Bhutto's return
to the country with suicide bombings.

Hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints around the
rally venue Thursday, Bhutto's first public meeting in Rawalpindi
since she came back to the country.

In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security
forces in Rawalpindi.

In November, Bhutto had also planned a rally in the city, but
Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears.

(A "lone nut" did it. Sound familiar?)