Wow, if those are pictures of Musharraf and Bhutto, they both must have been evil–they both have facial hair!
On a serious note: bad things are coming in Pakistan. The world really didn’t need this. And my condolences to her family, if she had any left at this point, given that her father and brothers are all dead already to violence.
Apparently her mother is still alive. I saw this quoted off a Pakistani blog:
At a human level this is a tragedy like no other. Only a few days ago I was mentioning to someone that the single most tragic person in all of Pakistan - maybe all the world - is Nusrat Bhutto. Benazir’s mother. Think about it. Her husband, killed. One son poisoned. Another son assasinated. One daughter dead possibly of drug overdose. Another daughter rises to be Prime Minister twice, but jailed, exiled, and finally gunned down.
Today, in shock, I can think only of Benazir Bhutto the human being. Tomorrow, maybe, I will think of politics.
Tragic on many levels.
Hrm … this is getting more interesting. A photographer nearby heard gunshots, then the bomb. Apparently hospital folks are saying a shot to the neck killed her now. This lends more credence to a coordinated sniper/assassination/bombing and less to a random fanatic that got lucky with a suicide bomb.
Either way, what a messed up situation.
Yeah, CNN is saying it was a shot to the neck. Now, certainly Al Qaeda or whatever other bunch of Islamists that are the “usual suspects” for stuff like this could have done that, but it’s not generally their MO. Sniper shots are more the province of security services, paramilitaries, and intelligence agencies, in general. Doesn’t prove squat, but makes things that much more…disturbing, in some ways.
A random suicide bomber that got through the cordon is one thing; apparantly the bomber here detonated after the shot. The simple explanation is that in the chaos after the shooting the security cordon relaxed enough for the bomber to get through. The tin-foil hat explanation is that the bombing was to cover up the sniping by blowing the body to bits.
Either way, I’d suggest we look at who benefits from this–if anyone, really.
Boeing.
I know this is jumping the gun, so’s to speak, but I think I’m ready to be fitted for my tinfoil hat Doctor Wombat. Musharraf has the means and the motive. “Oh, look a terrorist attack! Emergency measures are back in place! I told you so! No elections!” (And no opponent anyhow. No more.)
Then again, if al Qaida was looking to stir up trouble or the pro-Taliban ISI was…this would work too.
Hopefully there will be a clear account soon, but the impression I got was that the assassin came up next to her car (that had throngs of people around it and minimal security), shot her in the neck, she ducked down in the car, and then he blew himself up.
Or it could be a second gunman on a grassy knoll. :)
I posted this over at OO as well, but this is supposedly from just a few seconds before she was shot:
My understanding is that the assassin shot her several times from close range with a handgun and then blew himself up.
The ISI doesn’t need to kill her, there’s plenty of Islamic fundamentalist wackos who despise everything she stands for willing to blow themselves up in her proximity. (Well, now there’s one less, I suppose.)
Of course, the ISI funded said Islamic fundamentalist wackos for a decade. Whoops.
Yeah, as more info comes in it does seem that it wasn’t a long-range shooter. More a Jack Ruby thing (well, Ruby didn’t blow himself up afterwards, but whatever).
That doesn’t speak well for Pakistani security in any case, though God knows it must be damn near impossible to keep people away from a popular politician in settings like that. Still, I can’t recall other attacks of a similar nature–shooting followed by blowing oneself up. Anyone know of any like this of any significant level?
She certainly had enough enemies though, as does everyone in Pakistan’s political circus…
This shotsploder guy had bad timing. If he had done it back in the 90s, he’d have gotten a medal.
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that she was going to get killed. There are reports about media crews being kept far far away from the rally, but it’s early still.
I remember a few weeks ago that Bhutto refused to allow any restrictions at all to be placed on her by her security team – effectively rendering the security team useless for anything but reactive purposes. Her reasoning was that Musharraf would use the security team to force her to tone down her campaigning.
Personally, I think Bhutto was about as corrupt as they come these days, but this can’t be a good thing for Pakistan.
Well, Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility, but damned if people aren’t going to blame Musharraf anyway.
edit: seems there’s only one real source for the al-Qaeda angle, this may have to settle down some before confirmation.
Oh, fuck Al-Qaeda. Ever since 9/11 those motherfuckers try to claim everything. They’re like the Zodiac Killer, except they have better grammar and skill set.
As for corruption, yeah, but can anyone find any politician in Pakistan that isn’t corrupt by Western standards (whatever those are these days)? Was Bhutto appreciably more mendacious than Sharif or Mussharaf or anyone else of prominence? I certainly don’t know. It seemed that for a long time the preferred non-violent “weapon of choice” in Pakistani politics was a charge of corruption, true or not.
Certainly that’s better than what’s becoming the new political vogue, martial law, terrorism, and mob violence…in a country with a nuke program that while surprisingly secure so far still doesn’t instill loads of confidence in most outside observers…
Yeah but they don’t have that cool puzzle/code thing going on, so it’s like, not as fun.
Oh I don’t know. If I were ol’ AQ, I’d be sipping a cupful of STFU even if AQ were responsible, since it would be a twofer, as the opposition is now using this as an opportunity for Musharraf’s blood.
AQ exhibits few signs of intelligence or planning they just like the press clippings.
Yes, actually, she was. Her time in office (the second one) still holds the record for most extrajudicial killings, and was infamous for its corruption. Even by Pakistani standards, she’s nowhere near the top of the pile for good governance.