Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, reacts as she disembarks her airplane that brought her from Dubai to Karachi, Pakistan, Oct. 18, 2007. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press) (CP Photo)
In Depth
Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto: 1953-2007
Former Pakistani prime minister assassinated at political rally
Last Updated December 27, 2007
CBC News
Benazir Bhutto
As Benazir Bhutto prepared for her dramatic return to Pakistan in October 2007, her second return from exile in 20 years, there were sinister warnings of assassins waiting to kill her. Those fears were only stoked by a suicide bombing on the former prime minister's return to Karachi, which killed more than 140 supporters and members of her security team. Bhutto was not injured and despite fears for her life, she continued to hold public rallies over the next two months.
Then, on Dec. 27, her enemies struck again.
As Bhutto left a political rally in the city of Rawalpindi where she addressed thousands of supporters in advance of Pakistan's January parliamentary elections, there were reports of gunfire and a suicide blast.
At least 20 people were killed, including Bhutto.
"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Senator Babar Awan, Bhutto's lawyer, told the Associated Press shortly after her death.
The killing of the charismatic former prime minister threw the election campaign into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile South Asian country.
Father was PM
Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, the eldest daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was Pakistan's first elected prime minister, known for his socialism and benevolence, promising to provide everyone with "roti, chapra and makan" (food, clothing, shelter).
Benazir was educated at Catholic convents in Pakistan before going to the United States in 1969 to attend Radcliffe College in Massachusetts and Harvard University. She then went to England where she studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford.
After her studies, she returned to Pakistan where her father was charged with conspiring to commit a political murder and executed in 1979. The Bhutto family has experienced other calamities. Benazir's brother, Shahnawaz, was found dead in a French Riviera apartment in 1985. Another brother, Murtaza, fled to Afghanistan after his father's execution, mounted a campaign against Pakistan's military government and was shot dead in mysterious circumstances in 1996.
Benazir was placed under house arrest for five years shortly before her father's execution, and then went to Britain where she became leader-in-exile of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). After Benazir's triumphant return to Pakistan in 1988, the PPP won 39 per cent of the popular vote and she was sworn in as Pakistan's prime minister in a coalition government.
Media star
Because of her championing of democracy and glamorous looks Benazir became something of a media darling in the West. With her designer glasses and bright lipstick, she looked like a young version of Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. In public, she wore a traditional headscarf and the loose-fitting Muslim shalwar kameez.
People Magazine has included her in a list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.
Benazir's PPP was turfed from power in 1990 because of charges of corruption. Benazir has always denied the charges and has never been tried for them. She was re-elected in 1993, but thrown out of power three years later on similar charges.
Before boarding a flight from Dubai to Karachi in October, Benazir told a news conference she hoped "to fulfil the aspirations of the great people of my country who deserve a better future than they have had in the past." She was with two of her three daughters and her husband, Asif Zardari, who was jailed eight years in Pakistan after Benazir lost power in 1996.
Threats of violence
The U.S. saw Benazir's role in any Pakistani political alliance as something that could legitimize General Musharraf's role as a valuable ally in the war against terror. Despite the threats of violence — she used a special armoured car — Benazir spoke defiantly while in Pakistan.
Her Dec. 27 appearance was her first public meeting in Rawalpindi since she came back to the country. A month earlier, Benazir had also planned a rally in the city, but Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears.
In recent weeks, suicide bombers had repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has its headquarters.
- With files from the Associated Press
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Quick facts:
Population: 159,196,336 (July 2004 estimate)
Capital: Islamabad
Currency: Rupee
Major languages: Although English and Urdu are the official languages, the most-spoken languages are Punjabi, Sindhi and Siraiki.
Major religion: 77 per cent Sunni Muslim, 20 per cent Shia Muslim. Some Christian and Hindu.
Location: Southern Asia.
Area total: 803,940 sq. km, slightly smaller than B.C.
Border countries: Bordered by the Arabian Sea, between India on the east, Iran and Afghanistan on the west, and China in the north.
Natural resources: Pakistan has extensive natural gas reserves, some petroleum and poor quality coal.
Government: Federal republic, bicameral parliament consisting of a senate and national assembly.
History: In 1947, British India was separated into India and the Muslim state of Pakistan, with its east and west sections separated by mostly Hindu India. East Pakistan seceded in 1971 to become Bangladesh.
Origin of the name: "Pakistan" was coined by Muslim students at Cambridge University in Britain in 1933 as an acronym for the regions and nationalities that would make up the country: Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Iran, Sindh, Turkharistan, Afghanistan and Balochistan.