Benazir Bhutto 'killed in blast'

[Steve Gardner]

Source: BBC

Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack, a military spokesman has announced on TV.

Earlier reports said Ms Bhutto had only been injured and taken to hospital.

Ms Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally in the town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off.

At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured. Ms Bhutto had twice been the country's prime minister.

She had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January.

The BBC's Barbara Plett says the killing is likely to provoke an agonised response from her followers, especially from her loyal following in Sindh Province.

The PPP has the largest support of any party in the country.

Scene of grief

The explosion occurred close to an entrance gate of the park in Rawalpindi where Ms Bhutto had been speaking.

Wasif Ali Khan, a member of the PPP who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital, said she died at 1816 (1316 GMT).

Supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog", referring to President Pervez Musharraf, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Some broke the glass door at the main entrance to the emergency unit as others wept.

A man with a PPP flag tied around his head could be seen beating his chest, the agency adds.

An interior ministry spokesman, Javed Cheema, was quoted as saying by AFP that she may have been killed by pellets packed into the suicide bomber's vest.

However, AP quoted a PPP security adviser as saying she was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, before the gunman blew himself up.

Return from exile

The killing was condemned by the US and Russia, and a statement is expected shortly from the UK.

The killing undermined reconciliation in Pakistan, the US state department said.

Ms Bhutto returned from self-imposed exile in October after years out of Pakistan where she had faced corruption charges.

Her return was the result of a power-sharing agreement with President Musharraf in which he granted an amnesty that covered the court cases she was facing.

Since her return relations with Mr Musharraf had broken down.

On the day of her return she led a motor cavalcade through the city of Karachi. It was hit by a double suicide attack that left some 130 dead.

Earlier on Thursday at least four people were killed ahead of an election rally that Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was preparing to attend close to Rawalpindi.

[Steve Gardner]

Source: BBC

Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it - he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack.


Ms Bhutto had a volatile political career

Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths.

Like the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhuttos of Pakistan are one of the world's most famous political dynasties. Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970s.

His government was one of the few in the 30 years following independence that was not run by the army.

Born in 1953 in the province of Sindh and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Ms Bhutto gained credibility from her father's high profile, even though she was a reluctant convert to politics.

She was twice prime minister of Pakistan, from 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to 1996.

Stubbornness

On both occasions she was dismissed from office by the president for alleged corruption.

The dismissals typified her volatile political career, which was characterised by numerous peaks and troughs. At the height of her popularity - shortly after her first election - she was one of the most high-profile women leaders in the world.

Young and glamorous, she successfully portrayed herself as a refreshing contrast to the overwhelmingly male-dominated political establishment.

But after her second fall from power, her name came to be seen by some as synonymous with corruption and bad governance.


Asif Zardari has faced numerous corruption charges

The determination and stubbornness for which Ms Bhutto was renowned was first seen after her father was imprisoned and charged with murder by Gen Zia ul-Haq in 1977, following a military coup. Two years later he was executed.

Ms Bhutto was imprisoned just before her father's death and spent most of her five-year jail term in solitary confinement. She described the conditions as extremely hard.

During stints out of prison for medical treatment, Ms Bhutto set up a Pakistan People's Party office in London, and began a campaign against General Zia.

She returned to Pakistan in 1986, attracting huge crowds to political rallies.

After Gen Zia died in an explosion on board his aircraft in 1988, she became one of the first democratically elected female prime ministers in an Islamic country.

Corruption charges

During both her stints in power, the role of Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Zardari, proved highly controversial.

He played a prominent role in both her administrations, and has been accused by various Pakistani governments of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers - charges he denies, as did Ms Bhutto herself.

Many commentators argued that the downfall of Ms Bhutto's government was accelerated by the alleged greed of her husband.

None of about 18 corruption and criminal cases against Mr Zardari has been proved in court after 10 years. But he served at least eight years in jail.

He was freed on bail in 2004, amid accusations that the charges against him were weak and going nowhere.

Ms Bhutto also steadfastly denied all the corruption charges against her, which she said were politically motivated.

She faced corruption charges in at least five cases, all without a conviction, until amnestied in October 2007.


President Pervez Musharraf granted Ms Bhutto and others an amnesty

She was convicted in 1999 for failing to appear in court, but the Supreme Court later overturned that judgement.

Soon after the conviction, audiotapes of conversations between the judge and some top aides of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were discovered that showed that the judge had been under pressure to convict.

Ms Bhutto left Pakistan in 1999 to live abroad, but questions about her and her husband's wealth continued to dog her.

She appealed against a conviction in the Swiss courts for money-laundering.

During her years outside Pakistan, Ms Bhutto lived with her three children in Dubai, where she was joined by her husband after he was freed in 2004.

She was a regular visitor to Western capitals, delivering lectures at universities and think-tanks and meeting government officials.

Army mistrust

Ms Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007 after President Musharraf signed into law an ordinance granting her and others an amnesty from corruption charges.

Observers said the military regime saw her as a natural ally in its efforts to isolate religious forces and their surrogate militants.

She declined a government offer to let her party head the national government after the 2002 elections, in which the party received the largest number of votes.

In the months before her death, she had emerged again as a strong contender for power.

Some in Pakistan believe her secret talks with the military regime amounted to betrayal of democratic forces as these talks shored up President Musharraf's grip on the country.

Others said such talks indicated that the military might at long last be getting over its decades-old mistrust of Ms Bhutto and her party, and interpreted it as a good omen for democracy.

Western powers saw in her a popular leader with liberal leanings who could bring much needed legitimacy to Mr Musharraf's role in the "war against terror".

Unhappy family

Benazir Bhutto was the last remaining bearer of her late father's political legacy.

Her brother, Murtaza - who was once expected to play the role of party leader - fled to the then-communist Afghanistan after his father's fall.

From there, and various Middle Eastern capitals, he mounted a campaign against Pakistan's military government with a militant group called al-Zulfikar.

He won elections from exile in 1993 and became a provincial legislator, returning home soon afterwards, only to be shot dead under mysterious circumstances in 1996.

Benazir's other brother, Shahnawaz - also politically active but in less violent ways than Murtaza - was found dead in his French Riviera apartment in 1985.

[RedRepublic]

Hmm, well. While this is somewhat of a shocking news story, it was expected. Hate to piss on the deceased, but she had it coming! Pakistan is a VERY unstable place, where suicide attacks are the norm. She can't waltz into her country and oppose the government when there are some very dedicated supporters of the current President - supporters who would go all the way to keep their leader in office!

[Steve Gardner]

redrepublic said:

Hate to piss on the deceased, but she had it coming!

To me, the saying 'had it coming' implies she deserved it, which I don't think is necessarily what you meant.

I agree with you in that this was certainly not unexpected. A quick read through her obituary shows her family has a rather nasty habit of getting bumped-off. And worse, there are no shortage of people willing to try if the first attempts are unsuccessful.

On a slightly inappropriate note, I'd never noticed how striking she was until I saw some of the pictures that have been used to document her life.



Now I know she might not be everyone's cup of tea - especially the 'yoofs' amongst us - but I think she was a very attractive woman.

[Steve Gardner]

Not surprisingly, it's all going a bit Pete Tong in Pakistan.

Source: Gulf Daily News

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was on "red alert" this morning after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto sparked violent protests by her supporters. At least 10 people were shot dead as rioting broke out in several cities across the country.



Two people were killed in the eastern city of Lahore where shops, buses and cars were set on fire. Sporadic gunfire could also be heard echoing around the city. Two other people were shot dead in the southern province of Sindh.

President Pervez Musharraf denounced what he called a terrorist attack and appealed for calm after angry backers of the slain former prime minister took to the streets across Pakistan, from the Himalayas to the southern coast.

"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said in a nationally televised speech.

The unrest was predictably fiercest in Benazir's native Sindh province and its capital, Karachi.

Reports said security was deteriorating in Karachi, where thousands poured on to the streets to protest. At least three banks, a government office and a post office were set on fire, a witness said.

Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Benazir as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," said police officer Mohammad Shahid.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif's campaign rally also came under attack, killing four, but the former premier escaped unhurt.

Meanwhile, Sharif yesterday announced his party was boycotting January 8 parliamentary elections, and demanded that the country's president resign immediately.

Sharif has also called for a nationwide strike today.

Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said yesterday the government would "unearth the conspiracy" behind Benazir's assassination, which he called an "inhuman act of terrorism".

Meanwhile, an air force plane with the body of Benazir left Islamabad early Friday ahead of her funeral in her home town, an interior ministry official said.

Her husband Asif Zardari, who had flown in from Dubai shortly before, and their three children had a brief chance to see the body before the plane took off.

The interior ministry official said the plane had set off for the city of Sukkur in the south, close to her home town of Larkana.

The Pakistan Embassy in Bahrain would not comment yesterday, saying that it would have to receive official permission from the government to comment on the assassination.

[Steve Gardner]

...Bhutto assassination

You don't have to be a genius to work out something is profoundly wrong with the emerging and seemingly liquid official story surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Apart from the report below, which alleges not only that the police withdrew but also that we're now looking at a non-guman theory, there are a couple of aspects that disturb me.

• Bhutto claimed Bin Laden was dead on 2nd November this year
  
  
  
  
• Bin Laden regularly 'releases' videos; a new one is apparently scheduled for release imminently
  
  
• Al Qaeda has emerged as the chief suspect in the assassination, having previously denounced her as an instrument of U.S. policy in Pakistan
  
  
• And, as a matter of historical record, al Qaeda has been known to work closely with the CIA, usually through intermediaries, as was recently reported to be the case with Jundullah in Iran

So a couple of things strike me as odd.

Al Qaeda is said to have targeted Bhutto because, they claim, she is an instrument of the U.S. If this were a genuine reason for targeting her, why has Musharef not been targeted? He has been funded to the hilt in the US-led War on Terror and is widely regarded as a US ally; why isn't he in the cross-hairs?

And, if Bhutto knew Bin Laden was dead and got into the habit of repeating this until it became widely accepted, Bin Laden's Glodsteinesque video releases would have to stop. Not only would this bring an abrupt end to Bin Laden as a propaganda tool, it would surely raise questions about who exactly had been churning these videos out all this time.

In sum, I guess what I'm suggesting is that, if anything, al Qaeda is an instrument of the US and that Bhutto simply had to be shut up.

Source: The Raw Story

No autopsy performed on body; docs say bullet wounds not found

Police abandoned their security posts shortly before Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's assassination Thursday, according to a journalist present at the time, and unanswerable questions remain about the cause of her death, because an autopsy was never performed.

Pakistan's Interior Minister on Friday said that Bhutto was not killed by gunshots, as had been widely reported, and doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she died, say there were no bullet marks on the former prime minister's body, according to India's IBNLive.com. Furthermore, according to the news agency, there was no formal autopsy performed on Bhutto's body before she was buried Friday.

CNN is now reporting that it wasn't gunshots or shrapnel that killed Bhutto, but that she died from hitting the sunroof of the car she was riding in. The network said sources in Pakistan's Interior Ministry said nothing entered her skull, no bullets or shrapnel.

Apparently there was some kind of lever on the sunroof she was standing through, and she hit her head on that CNN reported Friday morning.

Earlier in the day Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told a Pakistani news channel, “The report says she had head injuries – an irregular patch – and the X-ray doesn’t show any bullet in the head. So it was probably the shrapnel or any other thing has struck her in her said. That damaged her brain, causing it to ooze and her death. The report categorically says there’s no wound other than that," according to IBNLive.

Perhaps more shockingly, an attendee at the rally where Bhutto was killed says police charged with protecting her "abandoned their posts," leaving just a handful of Bhutto's own bodyguards protecting her.

"Police officers had frisked the 3,000 to 4,000 people attending Thursday's rally when they entered the park, but as the speakers from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party droned on, the police abandoned many of their posts," wrote Saeed Shah in an essay published by McClatchy News Service. "As she drove out through the gate, her main protection appeared to be her own bodyguards, who wore their usual white T-shirts inscribed: 'Willing to die for Benazir.'"

While some intelligence officials, especially within the US, were quick to finger al Qaeda militants as responsible for Bhutto's death, it remains unclear precisely who was responsible and some speculation has centered on Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, its military or even forces loyal to the current president Pervez Musharraf. Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, is the garrison city that houses the Pakistani military's headquarters.

"GHQ (general headquarters of the army) killed her," Sardar Saleem, a former member of parliament, told Shah at the hospital.

Whatever the case, Bhutto's precise cause of death may never be known because of the failure to administer an autopsy. The procedure was not carried out because police and local authorities in Rawalpindi did not request one, according to IBNLive, but the government plans a formal investigation why this was the case.

Musharraf initially blamed her death on unnamed Islamic militants, but Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told The Associated Press on Friday that "we have the evidence that al-Qaida and the Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto."

He said investigators had resolved the "whole mystery" behind the opposition leader's killing and would give details at press conference later Friday.

[Steve Gardner]

...They blame Musharraf

Pay particular attention to the highlighted paragraph. This is about as far as any mainstream news source will go towards acknowledging that the ISI (which, remember, has deep-rooted connections to the fundamentalists referred to as al Qaeda, as well as the CIA) is a tool not just of Pakistan but also of the US.

I think this is one of the keys to uncovering what really happened on 9/11.

Source: The Independent

Published: 29 December 2007

Weird, isn't it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were "extremists" and "terrorists". Well, you can't dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa'ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country.

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it's not surprising that the "good-versus-evil" donkey can be trotted out to explain the carnage in Rawalpindi.

Who would have imagined, watching the BBC or CNN on Thursday, that her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, hijacked a Pakistani airliner in 1981 and flew it to Kabul where Murtaza demanded the release of political prisoners in Pakistan. Here, a military officer on the plane was murdered. There were Americans aboard the flight – which is probably why the prisoners were indeed released.

Only a few days ago – in one of the most remarkable (but typically unrecognised) scoops of the year – Tariq Ali published a brilliant dissection of Pakistan (and Bhutto) corruption in the London Review of Books, focusing on Benazir and headlined: "Daughter of the West". In fact, the article was on my desk to photocopy as its subject was being murdered in Rawalpindi.

Towards the end of this report, Tariq Ali dwelt at length on the subsequent murder of Murtaza Bhutto by police close to his home at a time when Benazir was prime minister – and at a time when Benazir was enraged at Murtaza for demanding a return to PPP values and for condemning Benazir's appointment of her own husband as minister for industry, a highly lucrative post.

In a passage which may yet be applied to the aftermath of Benazir's murder, the report continues: "The fatal bullet had been fired at close range. The trap had been carefully laid, but, as is the way in Pakistan, the crudeness of the operation – false entries in police log-books, lost evidence, witnesses arrested and intimidated – a policeman killed who they feared might talk – made it obvious that the decision to execute the prime minister's brother had been taken at a very high level."

When Murtaza's 14-year-old daughter, Fatima, rang her aunt Benazir to ask why witnesses were being arrested – rather than her father's killers – she says Benazir told her: "Look, you're very young. You don't understand things." Or so Tariq Ali's exposé would have us believe. Over all this, however, looms the shocking power of Pakistan's ISI, the Inter Services Intelligence.

This vast institution – corrupt, venal and brutal – works for Musharraf.

But it also worked – and still works – for the Taliban. It also works for the Americans. In fact, it works for everybody. But it is the key which Musharraf can use to open talks with America's enemies when he feels threatened or wants to put pressure on Afghanistan or wants to appease the " extremists" and "terrorists" who so oppress George Bush. And let us remember, by the way, that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter beheaded by his Islamist captors in Karachi, actually made his fatal appointment with his future murderers from an ISI commander's office. Ahmed Rashid's book Taliban provides riveting proof of the ISI's web of corruption and violence. Read it, and all of the above makes more sense.

But back to the official narrative. George Bush announced on Thursday he was "looking forward" to talking to his old friend Musharraf. Of course, they would talk about Benazir. They certainly would not talk about the fact that Musharraf continues to protect his old acquaintance – a certain Mr Khan – who supplied all Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran. No, let's not bring that bit of the "axis of evil" into this.

So, of course, we were asked to concentrate once more on all those " extremists" and "terrorists", not on the logic of questioning which many Pakistanis were feeling their way through in the aftermath of Benazir's assassination.

It doesn't, after all, take much to comprehend that the hated elections looming over Musharraf would probably be postponed indefinitely if his principal political opponent happened to be liquidated before polling day.

So let's run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair might have done in his policeman's notebook before he became the top cop in London.

Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir's supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.

Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?

Er. Yes. Well quite.

You see the problem? Yesterday, our television warriors informed us the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a "murderer" were complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir. Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her.

[Steve Gardner]

Source: The Guardian

Sunday December 30, 2007 8:46 PM
By ZARAR KHAN
Associated Press Writer

NAUDERO, Pakistan (AP) - Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son - a student with no political experience - was named symbolic leader of her party Sunday, while her husband took effective control, extending Pakistan's most enduring political dynasty.

The major parties appeared to agree that the elections should take place as scheduled on Jan. 8 despite street violence and political turmoil triggered by the assassination of Bhutto. The Election Commission is to discuss the timing of the polls Monday.

A successful vote would bolster U.S.-backed plans to restore democracy to the nuclear-armed country as it battles rising Islamic extremism.

Rioting subsided Sunday after destruction that left at least 44 dead and caused ten of millions of dollars in damage, but bitterness remained over the government's response to the gun and suicide attack that killed Bhutto.

The appointment of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was not without its own complications. A former Cabinet minister who spent eight years in prison on corruption accusations, he is known as ``Mr. 10 Percent'' for allegedly taking kickbacks and is viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis.

At a news conference on Sunday, Zardari said the opposition party - Pakistan's largest - had no confidence in the government's ability to bring the killers to justice and urged the United Nations to establish a committee like the one investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The decisions on the future of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party were made at a closed-door meeting in the sprawling family estate in the south of the country where the two-time former prime minister grew up.

The eldest of Bhutto's three children, Bilawal Zardari, accepted the party's leadership, but said he would remain at Oxford University.

He said his father, who was officially designated co-chairman, would be the effective party leader.

``The party's long struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor,'' Bilawal told a news conference that was repeatedly interrupted by emotional chants from Bhutto's supporters. ``My mother always said democracy is the best revenge.''

Bhutto's grandfather was a senior figure in the movement that helped Pakistan split from India and lead it to independence in 1947. Her father - Pakistan's first elected prime minister - founded the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967 and its electoral success since then has largely depended on the Bhutto name.

Bilawal said that Zardari would ``take care'' of the party while he continued his studies. Zardari then told reporters to direct questions at him, saying his son was at a ``tender age.''

Zardari, who spent eight years under detention on corruption charges in Pakistan before his release in late 2004, is a power broker who served as investment minister in Bhutto's second government. He has denied the graft charges.

He immediately announced the party's participation in the elections, perhaps sensing sympathy for Bhutto and her family could translate into a strong performance in the polls, but said another party leader, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, would likely be their candidate for prime minister if they won.

He also appealed to the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reverse an earlier decision to boycott the polls. Sharif's party later agreed.

``It is up to the political parties in Pakistan to choose their leaders,'' White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said from Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is vacationing.

``We believe it is important for Pakistan to confront extremists and continue on the path to democracy by holding free and fair elections,'' he said. ``The timing of those elections will be up to the Pakistanis.''

Tariq Azim, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, congratulated the decision to against seeking a delay in the vote.

``We welcome it, and we are also ready for the contest on Jan. 8,'' he said after earlier predicting the election may be delayed up to four months.

The British and U.S. governments had been pushing Bhutto, a moderate Muslim seen as friendly to the West, to form a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf after the election - a combination seen as the most effective in the fight against al-Qaida, which is believed to be regrouping in the country's lawless tribal areas.

But many of her supporters have alleged that political allies of Musharraf were behind her killing, which the government has blamed on Islamic militants with links to al-Qaida.

A statement from the British government said Musharraf had agreed to consider ``potential international support'' to the Pakistani investigation into the assassination, but gave no more details. It also urged Pakistan to go ahead with elections without any ``significant delay.''

Zardari rejected as ``lies'' the government's account of how his wife died, amid a dispute over whether she sustained fatal gunshot wounds or was killed by the force of the suicide blast that struck her vehicle as she left a campaign rally on Thursday.

At Zardari's insistence, Bhutto was buried without an autopsy and the debate over her cause of death has undermined confidence in the government and further angered her followers.

No fresh rioting was reported Sunday and Zardari urged supporters to show restraint.

``God willing, when it is the Peoples Party's reign, when the Peoples Party government is formed, then we would have taken revenge for Bibi's blood and that blood would not have gone waste,'' Zardari said, referring to his late wife by her nickname.

[Steve Gardner]

Source: Financial Times

By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: January 3 2008

Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence services were not involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, President Pervez Musharraf said at a news conference on Thursday.

His statement came after the Pakistani government relented on opposition demands for an independent investigation into Ms Bhutto’s murder last week, and formally requested help in the inquiry from a team of British detectives.

“We don’t mind going to any extent, as nobody is involved from the government or [intelligence] agency side,” said Mr Musharraf.

“I am not a feudal. I am not a tribal. I have been brought up in a civilised family which believes in character. My family does not believe in assassinations or killings.”

He also rejected claims that there had been a security lapse. He implied that the murdered opposition leader, who had been greeting her supporters through the sunroof of her car in Rawalpindi moments before the fatal attack, was partly responsible.

“Who is to be blamed for her coming out of her vehicle?” the president asked.

However, Mr Musharraf conceded for the first time that some of the physical evidence from the crime scene may have been damaged after Ms Bhutto’s assassination, but said that was not by design.

Earlier on Thursday, a senior government official said the statement from an interior ministry official after Ms Bhutto’s killing – that she died after being wounded when she banged her head against a lever of her car’s sunroof following the suicide blast – “was one of the many errors that was avoidable. It was a provocative statement which added to the confusion about the circumstances surrounding the assassination”.

On Wednesday, Mr Musharraf said he would keep the army and paramilitary forces deployed in Ms Bhutto’s home province of Sindh until after the general election – now postponed until February 18 – to curb any repeat of the bloody unrest after her murder.

At least 40 people were killed, private and commercial properties including banks and businesses were destroyed, and north-south railway links were suspended.

The instability has again stoked fears among western diplomats over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, which is thought to consist of an estimated 60 bombs stored in underground locations.

Such worries were first raised in 2004 following allegations that Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb, had sold nuclear know-how to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

On Thursday, Mr Musharraf defended the nuclear weapons programme in the face of concerns that an Islamist takeover of Pakistan could potentially arm militant groups with nuclear weapons. “We guard our strategic assets and nuclear [assets] very, very jealously. They are in excellent custodial controls,” he said.

“There is not a threat to them from extremists or terrorists. There is no possibility of extremists coming into government in Pakistan.”


Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

[Steve Gardner]

I want to return to the point made in an earlier post about claims that al Qaeda targeted Bhutto because they considered her an instrument of the US.

If this is true - if they are really going to target public figures they feel are instruments of the US - how has Musharraf survived?

Consider this article in Time, for example, which not only suggests close cooperation between the Pakistani authorities and the US, but that this cooperation has led to the alleged deaths of prominent al Qaeda members.

A U.S. Predator strike on a militant compound in Northwest Pakistan may have killed a top al-Qaeda operative. If confirmed, the death of Abu Laith al-Libi, believed to be one of the highest-ranking leaders of the terror group after Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, would be a coup in the war on terror. But it is also an embarrassment for President Pervez Musharraf, who has repeatedly said that he will not sanction U.S. attacks against al-Qaeda targets thought to be regrouping in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal lands along the border with Afghanistan.

Al Libi is said to be behind many al-Qaeda operations, including a suicide bombing targeted at U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during his visit to Afghanistan last year; he is closely linked with both the Taliban movements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Authorities have not confirmed the Tuesday morning attack, but sources in the area told the Associated Press that the compound may have belonged to a tribal leader linked to Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the newly unified Pakistani Taliban and the man charged by both the Pakistani government and the CIA with planning the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

Musharraf's government has long maintained that U.S. troops would not be allowed to conduct operations on Pakistani soil. Last month the President said in an interview with Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times that U.S. troops would be considered "invaders" if they crossed the border in the pursuit of al-Qaeda militants. However, similar Predator drone attacks in the area seem to indicate a certain level of cooperation between Pakistani and U.S. intelligence. In January of 2006, a botched American air strike in the town of Damadola, meant to take out al-Qaeda number two Ayman al Zawahiri, killed his son-in-law and some 16 civilians — earning Musharraf widespread criticism for allowing the U.S. to attack targets within Pakistani borders. Another strike in October, on a suspected militant training camp in nearby Baijur district, killed some 80 men. The Pakistani government took responsibility for the attack, but many in the region suspect that the missiles came from a predator drone.

Neither U.S. nor Pakistani officials have officially confirmed Tuesday's predator attack, but such joint maneuverings come as little surprise to Pakistani analysts. "This is nothing new," says defense analyst Nasim Zehra. "Coordinated attacks using Pakistani intelligence and U.S. firepower have been accepted by many levels of governmental institutions, but for deniability purposes no one will ever confirm what happened."

Musharraf, increasingly unpopular since his dismissal late last year of the Supreme Court — which was poised to invalidate his recent re-election on constitutional grounds — will likely face even more popular opprobrium following the latest attack. But, says Zehra, this should not be confused with Pakistani reluctance to pursue terrorists. "It would be erroneous to draw any conclusions from public criticism against Musharraf for letting in U.S. forces. In the greater context, there is a lack of trust between the people of Pakistan and Musharraf's government. Because of his lack of political legitimacy there is bound to be criticism, but that does not mean that Pakistanis do not want terrorists to be stopped."

Retired Lt. General Talat Masood, who recently signed an open letter asking Musharraf to step down as president, says this attack, if it did kill al Libi, "shows that our intelligence is getting better, and that sometimes the Predator drones do work." However, he cautions, "It gives the impression that Pakistani sovereignty has been breached, and that builds resentment." Recent remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the United States is "ready, willing and able" to conduct joint combat operations against rising militancy in Pakistan has only inflamed tensions. The prevailing opinion is that for the past six years Pakistan has been fighting America's war on terror, and has gained nothing but a virulent crop of suicide bombers ready to take revenge.

"There is a great indifference to this war," says Masood. "So even if such an important leader is killed, it does not make waves. More educated people will see it for what it is — a successful blow in the battle against terrorists and al-Qaeda. For the others, it will be just one more mark against Musharraf." Despite battlefield victories, Pakistan's president will likely continue to find the war for public opinion difficult to win.