Bhutto’s assassination rocks Pakistan

Next to Musharraf, Bhutto, 54, was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. An instantly recognizable figure with graceful features under an ever-present head scarf, she bore the legacy of her hanged father and was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat Islamic extremism.

It was a theme she had often returned to in recent campaign speeches.

Addressing more than 5,000 supporters Thursday in Rawalpindi, a garrison city and former capital, Bhutto dismissed the notion that Pakistan needed foreigners to help it quell resurgent militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaida in the area bordering Afghanistan.

"Why should foreign troops come in? We can take care of this, I can take care of this, you can take care of this," she said.

Bhutto official watches terror unfold
As Bhutto left the rally in a white SUV, youths chanted her name and supportive slogans, said Sardar Qamar Hayyat, an official from Bhutto's party who was about 10 yards away.

Despite the danger of physical exposure, a smiling Bhutto stuck her head out of the sunroof and responded, 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. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down," he said.

Bhutto was rushed into surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck 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, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. She was given an open-heart massage, but the spinal-cord damage was too great, he said.

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

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Hours later, supporters carried Bhutto's body out of the hospital in a plain wooden coffin and sent it for burial in her ancestral home near the southern city of Larkana.

Bhutto, who was married with three children, had returned to Pakistan from nearly a decade in exile on Oct. 18, and her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, who killed more than 140 people. She narrowly escaped injury.

Rawalpindi, a garrison city and former capital, has a history of political violence. The park where Bhutto made her last speech is the same one where the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot to death in 1951. It is named after him.

President Pervez Musharraf survived two bombing attacks in Rawalpindi in 2003. Earlier that year, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was captured in Rawalpindi. In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi.

Bhutto's father was hanged in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder — an execution that led to violent protests across the country similar to those that raged across the country Thursday.

Hopes dashed for democracy
Thursday's rally was Bhutto's first since returning to Pakistan, Musharraf having forced her to scrap a previous meeting here last month citing security fears. Hundreds of riot police manned security checkpoints at the park.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Bhutto just hours before her death, called her a brave woman with a clear vision "for her own country, for Afghanistan and for the region — a vision of democracy and prosperity and peace."

Aamir Qureshi / AFP-Getty Images Benazir Bhutto waves to supporters as she arrives for an election compaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She and at least 20 others were killed as the rally ended.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., visiting Pakistan with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he was just leaving his hotel room for dinner with Bhutto at her home when he got the news.

"I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press by phone. "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."

One man was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in Tando Allahyar, a town 120 miles north of Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub, said Mayor Kanwar Naveed. Four others were killed in Karachi, two were killed elsewhere in the southern Sindh province and two in Lahore, police said.

Karachi shopkeepers quickly shuttered their stores as protesters burned vehicles, a gas station and tires on the roads, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.

Bhutto's supporters in many towns burned banks, shops and state-run grocery stores. Some torched ruling party election offices, according to Pakistani media.

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

The U.N. Security Council vigorously denounced the killing and urged "all Pakistanis to exercise restraint and maintain stability in the country."

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