Former PM Bhutto assassinated at Pakistan rally

Former PM Bhutto assassinated at Pakistan rally
Last Updated: Thursday, December 27, 2007 | 1:27 PM ET
CBC News

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was gunned down Thursday by an attacker who then blew himself up, killing at least 20 others.

The assassination of Bhutto sparked riots across the country, with at least six people reported killed in the ensuing violence.

Bhutto had just finished addressing thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, about 18 kilometres south of Islamabad, when a man stepped from the crowd and fired. Bhutto was hit in the neck and chest.

The killer then blew himself up.

Bhutto died around 6:16 p.m. local time (8:16 a.m. ET) at Rawalpindi General Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.

Her body has been flown to the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, where she'll be buried in the family graveyard alongside her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, on Friday.

In a brief televised address, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack and announced three days of mourning for Bhutto. During that time, all schools, commercial centres and banks will remain closed.

Meanwhile, paramilitary forces were put on "red alert" across the country, Reuters reported.

"This cruelty is the work of those terrorists with whom we are fighting," Musharraf said.

Bhutto escaped an assassination attempt in October when twin explosions ripped through crowds in Karachi welcoming her home from eight years of exile. Nearly 150 people died in the attacks.

One of the doctors who attended to Bhutto said she had a bullet in the back of her neck that damaged her spinal cord before it exited from the side of her head.

Another bullet pierced the back of Bhutto's shoulder and came out through her chest, the doctors said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Bhutto was given an open-heart massage, but the main cause of death was damage to her spinal cord, he said.


Upon hearing reports of her death, thousands of Bhutto's supporters gathered outside the hospital in Rawalpindi chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog."

"I can see outside, now, the massive amounts of people," Babar said from inside the hospital.

I can't say I was too surprised. She has guts to return to Pakistan; RIP.