A sad day
Posted by mesa in Texas on December 27, 2007
Also one that I feel/hope will prove to be a gigantic mistake for Al Qaeda.
They’ve just created a huge martyr against their cause.
Bhutto Assassination Sparks Riots
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been shot dead at an election rally – sparking riots across the country. The gunman then detonated a bomb, killing at least 15 of her supporters in Rawalpindi. Many more were injured in the suicide blast. At least four people have been shot dead in rioting as fears grow the nuclear-armed country will be plunged into civil war.
In Karachi, capital of Ms Bhutto’s native Sindh province, thousands took to the streets, torching dozens of vehicles and buildings.
“There is trouble almost everywhere,” a senior police official said.
The killing came less than two weeks before elections many expected would return Ms Bhutto to power and restore democracy.
Nawaz Sharif, the leader of a rival opposition party, vowed revenge and said his party would boycott the January 8 poll.
He told crowds: “Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death. Don’t feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers.”
Roundup at HotAir.
fareedismailsait said
Bhutto with her white veil, bejeweled blouses, flawless English and flair for drama and theatrical timing, Benazir Bhutto painted herself as lady liberty, a lone woman willing to risk all and stand up to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto said she is the one who can stop Musharraf and his crackdown, which has seen several thousand lawyers, students and political activists arrested. Observers compared the situation in Pakistan to September’s uprising in Myanmar, where monks and opposition leader (and Nobel Peace Prize-winner) Aung San Suu Kyi rallied against the military junta.
But Pakistan is not Myanmar, and Bhutto was no Aung San Suu Kyi.
Bhutto is a flawed hero. She has been accused – she said “for political reasons” – of massive corruption while serving twice as prime minister, first in the late 1980s and later in the mid-1990s. Bhutto stands accused of stealing roughly $1.5 billion, mostly in the form of kickbacks on government contracts.
Should we mourn her death?
Mark said
For Benazir
It’s snowing quietly outside.
The TV drones on about your death.
I saw the news this morning,
You wore white and purple today, before
you died.
Helplessness is the one word all
people who admired you can say,
in a common tongue.
You were alive yesterday,
talking with your secretaries, strategists,
and inner circle.
Today we talk about you as a
shining light in the darkness,
a legend for the ages.
You would not want me to kill
the hand that murdered you,
but that is what I want to do.
Your name, a soft breeze on the wind.