Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto (54) was assassinated [1] in Rawalpindi earlier today at a political rally. Ironically according to media reports Rawalpindi is one of the most secure cities in Pakistan and teeming with security folks. In another irony according to a report on the BBC Benazir was assassinated in almost the same place as Pakistan's first Prime Minister.
Her assassination [2] puts the future of Pakistan's political future in turmoil and there are questions being raised if Pakistan will plunge into a civil war.
Benazir [3] was the first woman to be elected twice as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
What a tragic end for a leader, who was fighting for democracy in Pakistan. Her return to Pakistan earlier this year started off on a wrong foot when an attempt was made to bomb her cavalcade that was traveling from the airport to her ancestral home. With this sudden death the political future of Pakistan is once again on an uncertain footing. The question is whether elections will be held next month.
A controversial leader, Benazir's [4] political views were shaped by her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former Prime Minister of Pakistan. A seasoned orator and writer Benazir [5] studied in UK and the USA before returning to Pakistan and joining her father's political party Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) and was was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. At Metroblogging Lahore [6], a blogger states that despite not supporting Bhutto's politics, the sudden death of the political leader is a tragic event.
I personally have never supported Ms Benazir and her party (the PPP). But this, by all means, goes beyond the immediate politics of pretty much everything. It goes without saying that no one, and I mean no one — even for a moment — deserves to go this way, to die in such an unnatural manner and for such obnoxiously stupid reasons. Fate, as we already should know, is not without a sense of irony; Benazir has died (primarily) due to gunfire wounds while leaving a political gathering at Liaquat Gardens; Liaquat Gardens is not only named after, but is also the same place where the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khan Liaquat Ali Khan was murdered with a bullet.