Benazir Bhutto Killed in an Attack

#466 hamidm: i guess it is more convenient to make-up (or "predict" as you say) what i will write. rather than responding to what i have actually written.

hello pakis...today's dish of karma pulao brought to you by the new york times. pay close attention. the jihadis whacking the pakis are the very same ones YOU created to give you strategic depth in afghanistan and bleed india in kashmir...

forget kashmir banega pakistan...you're well on your way to pakistan banega afghanistan(with apologies to afghans..they seem to hate pakis)..

Qaeda Network Expands Base in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Qaeda network accused by Pakistan’s government of killing the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is increasingly made up not of foreign fighters but of homegrown Pakistani militants bent on destabilizing the country, analysts and security officials here say.

In previous years Pakistani militants directed their energies against American and NATO forces in Afghanistan and avoided clashes with the Pakistani Army. But this year they have very clearly expanded their ranks and turned to a direct confrontation with the Pakistani security forces while aiming at political figures like Ms. Bhutto, the former prime minister who died when a suicide bomb exploded as she left a political rally Thursday.

The expansion of Pakistan’s own militants and their increasing links with Al Qaeda is a shift deeply troubling to the United States, which has been trying to help stabilize this volatile nuclear-armed country on the front line of the Bush administration’s fight against global terrorism.

It is also one that Pakistan’s own government has been loath to admit, but which Ms. Bhutto had begun to acknowledge publicly in her many warnings that the greatest threat to her country lay in religious extremism and terrorism.

One of Pakistan’s leading newspapers, The Daily Times, noted Saturday that such claims and denials are a common tactic used to obscure the origins of the militants’ attacks, and in particular to extend the myth that the bombings are the work of foreign elements, rather than by Pakistanis.

But Al Qaeda in Pakistan now comprises not just tribesmen from the border regions but also Punjabis and Urdu speakers and members of banned Pakistani sectarian groups and Sunni extremists groups, Najam Sethi, editor of The Daily Times, wrote in a front-page analysis. “Al Qaeda is now as much a Pakistani phenomenon as it is an Arab or foreign element,” he wrote.

When a bullet hits, they say that you do not know what hit you. This frame is picked from a running digital video from a vehicle moving immediately behind Benazir's Land Cruiser.

the second picture: you think the picture was taken after the shot? if yes, why is there no blood in it?

plz see my gallery. What came first/ egg or the chicken

Has anyone come up with an explanation of why the government would lie about this? And why did they wash the car so quickly and destroy evidence?

allright guys,

.... based on what i have seen on tv and everything i have read so far, i have to say that it is more likely than not that she was killed by a bullet ..... for god's sake the gunman was barely six feet from her - how could he have missed (unless it was a miracle as in pulp fiction !) ....... but why would the government lie about it? ...... that i still don't understand ....... whether she was killed by a bullet or a lever, the fact remains that security was inadequate and she was assassinated ....... period ......

..... i will admit that because of my prejudice against jihadis and suiciders and other vermin, my knee jerk reaction is to blame the muslims ..... tahmed, obsessed with musharraf will blame mushy, zeemaxullah will blame the jews, masadi will blame the us elite, arjun will blame 160 million pakis, urstruly will blame the kanjaroon and cantonment dogs .... take your pick - i am sticking with the muslims until someone comes up with definitive proof .........

Nikhat: when all this is over, MQM and musharraf will be history and Pakistan will be stronger than ever.

"Kis ko mudaee karein kis se munsafee chahein" Benazir is gone..leaving behind who and why and big vaccum in leadership of PPP. Personally I wish that :
A: Fellow Pakistanis should remain united and should not fell into this trap of Sindhi Punjabi Pushtoon thing. This was the plan and one of the self exiled leader of big ethnic group has already given a very hateful antifederation statement.
B.PPP should elect their chairperson democratically and not follow the patterns of monarchical heirarchy,like crowning Benazir's son or Zulfiqar Junior or Fatima(though she is my fav. girl).
Well i think it would be a close race b/w Aitzaz Ahsan and Makhdoom Ameen Fahim. But who am I to say I am not even their voter.PPP is very organised and consists of seasoned politicians , they will definitely come up with something good. Benazir's assassination has once again strenghtened and brought back the momentum of PPP, which had become very weak because of that deal no deal game.
Aah Benazir! you have fallen in the trap of Pervaiz Musharraf"Ai Mohabbat teire anjaam pe rona aaya"

Nikhat Riaz

Okay, Zeemax I saw the pictures you posted on UP. It is clear that the levers on the sunroof could not have been the cause. You can hit them with force but they can only rendered a person unconscious and not kill that person as nothing is protruding outward. Lever like that don't penetrate the skull.
Anyway this is getting too gory.

Thanks, Arjun..

Link to CNN video. It's clear that 3 shots were fired. link

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6oUPIUBfdz0

From the slow video of the shooter & bombing, it's clear that:

1. killer went as close as he can get i.e. bestrode the rear bumper or the rear step

2. the same killer was pushed away earlier when he tried to get closer from the left side of the car

3. he's not overpowered then (even if it's suicide bombing at that moment) and arrested.

4. shooter fired from the level of car top. Therefore bullets hitting her in the head is unbelievable unless there a ballastic report that explains the trajecotry of bullet(s) in her body. However bullet(s) piercing her back and coming outta her chest i.e. damage to vital organs is a clear possibility.

5. The govt version of her hitting the rim of the topdoor/sunroof is a possibility but Benazir dying of that hit is nothing but oversimplifying the death.

6. The time btwn shooting and detonation (of bomb) is like less than 10 secs. Security to Benazir is as good as no security at all.

7. The contours of the shooter in the video and the head ientified as suicide bomber looks the same. Therefore Al Qaeda's claim that a Punjabi volunteer executing the operation thru' Lashkar-e-Jhangvi looks very credible.

8. It appears from the video that he detonated the bomb with his left hand soon after shooting her from close range (abt a metre or less) when Benazir's security leaned rightwards. It's certain that she collapsed soon after receiving initial bullets, else Benazir wud've been incenerated with the fireball of the bomb that followed.

Benazir dying of bullet wounds is the most plausible explanation. She hitting the sunroof is unthinkable without an evidence of her being burnt with the fire that engulfed the whole area.

9. Medical reports of the doctrs who treated her would give more clues. However the spread of blood on the seat cover of the vehicle is an indication that what she took is/are bullet wound(s).

Alternatively, the impact of suicide bomb wud've invariably:

a. damage her body beyond recognition
b. full burns on her upper body.

From available reports there seem to be no bruns on her upper body.


P.S. Iqbal Cheema looked like a twin brother of Tariq Azim, literally as well as figuratively.

another thing brought up by someone I know who was in iraq: if the force of the blast threw her head back hard enough, hard enough that contact with the lever would have killed her, the force of the blast would have been so powerful that the car would have been rocked or at least pushed back.

seriously..paki government needs to hire baghdad bob..he'll be a step up..

a blast from the past...

Hotel blast 'not bomb': Pakistan

Pakistan's government has insisted an explosion at a hotel in Islamabad was not a terrorist attack but was probably caused by a short-circuit.

At least seven people were hurt, including a US diplomat, when the explosion shattered the ground floor of the Marriott hotel on Thursday night.

An interior ministry spokesman said there was no evidence of sabotage.

However, a risk unit that advises the US State Department said it was "an improvised explosive device".

The blast blew out nearly all the windows of the ground floor and could be heard a kilometre away.

mantolives "Bilawal zardari will succeed Benazir Bhutto as PPP leader. He is 19 years old. I don't know what to say."

i know exactly the words to describe it: PPP is a family owned business and Pakistan is their turf - almost like a drug lord protecting his territory. In this kind of business people do get shot.

#446 Posted by MantoLives on December 29, 2007 7:28:20 am


I don't know why you've hit the roof.


is that the right metaphor? isn't it more like "don't know why you've hit the lever of the sunroof"?