Benazir Bhutto, 54, Lived in Eye of Pakistan Storm

[L. Coyote]

Source: NY Times

By JANE PERLEZ and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: December 28, 2007

The daughter of one of Pakistan’s most flamboyant and democratically inclined prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto, 54, served two turbulent tenures of her own in that post. A deeply polarizing figure, she lived in exile in London for years with corruption charges hanging over her head before returning home this fall to present herself as the answer to her nation’s trouble.

She was killed on Thursday in a combined shooting and bombing attack at a rally in Rawalpindi, one of a series of open rallies she had insisted on holding since her return to Pakistan this fall, after years in self-imposed exile.

A woman of grand ambitions and a taste for complex political maneuvering, Ms. Bhutto, 54, was long the leader of the country’s largest opposition political party, founded by her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Even from exile, her leadership was firm, and when she returned, she proclaimed herself a tribune of democracy, leading rallies in opposition to Mr. Musharraf, like the one at which she died.

In a foreshadowing of the attack that killed her, a triumphal parade that celebrated her return to Pakistan in her home city of Karachi killed at least 134 of her supporters and wounded more than 400. Ms. Bhutto herself narrowly escaped harm.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhuttocnd.html?hp

---

Imagine .....

[nebula]

1. Good God what a violent political system

her father was hanged in a coup and her two brothers were also murdered by their political enemies. it appears her opponents in Pakistan have succeeded in wiping out her and her entire family, Mafia-style.