Benazir Bhutto Killed in an Attack

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/pakistan.politics/index.html?ere %20f=yahoo

This video confirms that it's the shot from fired by the man on ground that killed her i/o the shot (if it materialiseed) from behind coz she collapsed towards her right side.

Manto, could it be that Sindhi/Balochi 'nationalists' are now more Pakistani than they were in Zufi Bhutto's time? So dealing with them as 'nationalists' within the framework of Pakistan would have been considerably harder for her father than it was for Benazir.

I mean, look at Sindi 'nationalism.' It is essentially dead today, and Sindhi 'nationalists' are trying to figure out how to survive within Pakistan (which to me, is the best thing for both them and Pakistan.)

An addition to my previous post on the Pakistan's mercurial and brilliant Zulfikar Ali Bhutto:

For what its worth... I would never have said it 10 years ago but Benazir Bhutto as a leader and world figure was in my view head and shoulders above her famous father.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto banked cheap popularity and often followed the sentiments of the people (Friday as a weekly holiday, ban on horse racing, alcohol and gambling... all of which he himself enjoyed... and the Ahmadi issue being a clear example of it... remember the honest and upright Khawaja Nazimuddin, the Muslim Leaguer from East Pakistan with a conservative image, had preferred to leave PMship in a similar crisis 20 years earlier instead of declaring Ahmadis kafir)... but Benazir was an intellectual and a leader who was ready finally to lead instead of being led.

This is why the loss of Benazir Bhutto is greater than that of her father. Her loss is more akin to the loss of Shaheed-e-Millat Liaqat Ali Khan who was assassinated in the same place and whose death remains a mystery. The crisis that followed paved way for Bogra and then the Military... who didn't threaten to go to Moscow, as LAK had to drive a greater bargain.

Now the world is beginning to point fingers at Pakistan's nuclear assets. The difference between all previous such events and now is that Pakistan was strong enough to withstand the sudden eliminations of Liaqat Ali Khan, Bhutto and Zia.

But Benazir Bhutto was ... as the slogan said... charon soobon ki zanjeer... the true symbol of the federation. The fact that even the Baloch nationalists cried out for her shows how above and beyond Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir had proved to be.

May Bilawal Bhutto Zardari now have the courage to follow in his illustrious mother's footsteps.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=znvFgdGasH8

I can see two gunmen who fired from

a. rear bumper
b. next to (a) on ground.

which of course followed suicide bombing.

THIS IS ONLY THE VISIBLE EVIDENCE. ARE THERE ANY SHOOTER(S)?

In normal cases of death:

Heart function ceases first but brain wud still be 'not dead'. Brain death happens much later. In the case of Benazir she's hit in the head and she's brain dead b4 she had her heart stopped working. It may be due to heavy loss of blood o/a bleeding. Her heart failure happened much after brain ceased to function.

They did not declare that she's taken to hospital dead though it's true that she's taken to hospital dead (her pupils weren't responding to light).

From the Medical Report:

'There was wound in right Temporoparietal region. Shape was irregularly oval, measuring about 5 x 3 cms, just above the pinna of right ear. Edges were irregular. No surrounding wounds or blackening was seen. There was a big boggy swelling around the wound. Blood was continuously trickling down and whitish material that looked like brain matter was seen in the wound and on surrounding hair. Sharp bone edges were felt in wound. No foreign body was felt in the wound.'

Explanation:

a. The wound is obviously by a bullet (oval shaped hole in the skull) but on the wrong side i.e on her right side which is not in the direction of the 'visible' attackers i.e her back side and left side.

If the wound on her right side is possible without a corresponding wound on her left side then there are two possible explanations:

1. She's also hit from her right side

2. the bullet that was hit on her left side made exit from her right temporo-parietal region.

3. Edges of her right skull were irregular means that bullet is likely to have exited i/o entered her body from right side i.e bullet darting @ huge speed wud make a near regular (oval/circular) shape exp on skull coz it's a harded bone.

4. Edges of the wound (skin around) was not black means the bullet didnt enter her body from her right side (where the speed/heat of bullet blackens the skin around the wound). So her attackers were ONLY from the left and back.

5. Bullet obviously exited and that's why there's no foreign object in her skull or body (which is assumed as we dont have that info abt foerign objects in her body).

6. Bleeding from right nostrils and ear can explained by medical experts who know skull anatomy fully. However we can say that bullet damaged arteries on her right side causing bleeding thru her right ear and nostril.

HOWEVER THE SECOND PART OF THE REPORT CONTRADICTS THE OBSERVATIONS ABOVE i.e.

'Comminuted depressed skull fracture involving right temporoparietal bone is observed with inwards-depressed fracture fragment...'

Which means that bullet should have entered her body from her right side (which is not possible as per video evidence we have) and ended up in her body elsewhere.

Depending on the exact location of her 'comminuted depressed skull fracture' we can decide if it's orginated from above a height or ground. In the absence of spicific location of that wound/info we cant say if the shot was fired from ground or an elevation on her right side.

&

'.. moderate degree of pneumocephalus is observed..'

i.e Poor Benazir was targeted @ her head i.e. a foregin object ratchetted in her skull for a while (Two to three tiny radio-densities underneath fracture segment are observed..)

#514 Posted by majumdar,

18 Yrs. Only the President has to be over 45.

Militants Commander Baitullah Mahsud has contradicted reports about his or group involvement in assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
“Killing or aggression against a woman is contrary to tribal traditions,” remarked Baitullah Mahsud’s spokesman Maulvi Omar in telephonic calls to media offices on Saturday.
The government, through Interior Ministry, charged Baitullah Mahsud and his associates for assassinating former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto. In this respect, the officials of Interior Ministry presenting telephonic conversation of Baitullah Mahsud with one of his associates.
While contradicting involvement of Baitullah Mahsud in killing of Benazir Bhutto, Maulvi Omar alleged that through such type of statements, government wanted to confuse the public and divert attentions of the PPP. He termed the allegations against Mahsud baseless.
Advocating in favour of his claim, the spokesman reminded that attacking and killing of women are detrimental to tribal traditions. On such grounds “We condemn killing of Benazir Bhutto. “She was highly respectable politician at international level,” he added.
In response to a question, the spokesman recalled that Baitullah Mahsud has already contradicted press reports attributed to him regarding suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto. “We condemn brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” he concluded.
The spokesman, at each and every level during his brief chat with media offices, called Benazir Bhutto as “Shaheed and Mohtarama (respectable).”

Manto,

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

Why are you surprised, isn't that the natural order of things in the political partis of the sub-continent. Btw what is the minimu legal age for running for election and holding a post in Pakistan?

Regards

#510 Posted by dullabhatti.

Nope. The thing is that even if the agencies got her bumped off, what was wrong with admitting the bullet? They could still pin it on anyone they wanted. No? And there WAS a bombing and shooting which the Government is not denying. Only thing they're denying is that the bullets hit her.

There can only be one reason. As per my original contention from the outset, it was a sniper and not the gun in the video. Denying the bullet would also preclude examination of its details. Sniper bullets are customized for long distance precision sharp-shooting and not the ordinary hand gun type.

Re: # 509 its possible that the govt's intelligence guys affected a 3rd party penetration of LT and acted as agent provocateurs

At least one thing we know for sure. After the Karchi bombings it was suspected by a few that BB had herself ordered the outrage. At least that theory can be put to rest.

Regards

zeemax bhai, as we say in punjabi "eeNgRhi paRheeRNgRhi" (relationship dots) of the killer in picture connects with someone high up in the agencies. Does not matter he was Janghvi, LT, AQ, ISI, renegade soldier, or a loner. if you put adequate number of dedicated professional investigators with authority on this job, dots will eventually connect to sahib bahadur or someone working for him.

So it was indeed a bullet and not the lever. Sherry Rehman's statements and video shots confirm that beyond doubt.

So who did it? I had earlier held that the most likely ones would be Lashkar-e-Jhangvi or Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. But if they did, why is the Government lying about the bullet?

Very strange.

no doubt should be left after this video.

notice the 2 bullet shots leaving the pistol between 35-42 sec on the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiv4gvsrnfE

Fuzair in one of the videos you can clearly see the small fire/explosion while the bullet left the pistol.
seethe video on Sun page below from Sky News.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article628825.ece

I saw the same video in slow mode on some other website where you can see the gun fire from the pistol of the killer in dark clothing.

Re: 505 and 503,

Come on! Even 20 years from now no one would ever think that her death was a simple "concussion fall" akin to slipping in the bath tub!

IF the govt arranged her killing, why not get a non-military/police issue weapon? Even Pakistani generals aren't that incompetent!

Theres a huge difference between -
she was cut down by an assissin's bullets/bomb

&

she fell down & hit her head on a lever & died of concussion

the details r lost after a few years

yeah more you look at the videos, more you think what the hell was PPP security and her protectors doing? She had a big red target marked on her forehead since the day she landed in Pakistan...looks like even she did not do enough to protect herself.

Re: # 499

A simple question: why it is "not important how she died" -- but it is "who did it"( Dr. Chee ma)

Because it is 'easier' to find Mehsud congratulating on his celle phone than to find the bullet wound from a police pistol?

Tahmed,

Thanks for the reply. Looking at the various pictures and video of the assasination, I honestly cannot tell exactly what happened. I think it will take a full fledged analysis by FBI-type experts to disect the video frame by frame to figure out exactly what happened. However, the govt has refused external assistance. I assume the FBI/CIA/NSA has already started analyzing the event and we'll soon find out what their conclusion is. For the life of me I can't understand how the govt would benefit from insisting she died one way and not the other? Do they think that people would say, "if she wasn't actually shot or killed by shrapnel, the govt wasn't responsible for the lax security?"

In any case, what the video clearly shows is how appalingly bad was her security cordon. After the Karachi attack, why on earth would her people let her stand up in the SUV exposing herself to an unregulated crowd? Even if the govt wasn't providing anything approaching appropriate security, why weren't her own men telling her not to expose herself like this? Why weren't there a couple of hundred pre-screened PPP men forming a moving wall around her SUV as it made its way out of the meeting venue? That would have prevented anyone getting close enough to her vehicle to prevent exactly what did apparently happen.

Is there some kind of chowk award for a double-century? (I made both #300 and #500.)

Perhaps cover-up is what really permeates that khaki blood!

After all, these are the same people who (tried to) cover up the Mukhtaran Mai rape, the lady doctor rape, and countless other atrocities going as far back as one can remember.

Their logic is simple - make up a story, cover up the facts, and if people do not buy the same - why, beat them up!

It worked until 10-15 years ago - but no more. Now there is enough technology available out there that an average individual can research, verify, and discover on own.

These khaki folks did not learn anything from the GWB military service coverage fiasco at CBS.

fuzair #497 that "hissy fit" should have been directed at the pakistan military officers of the brigadier cheema variety, and sorry to have unfairly dragged you in.

here comes the rational reply (I hope): the surgeon had in fact suggested shrapnel wounds killed her, not blunt force as cheema said the next day. why were the doctors not allowed to make the official statement (as is normally done) rather than a government spokesman? and why was the doctor's informal report to the press (corroborated by eye-witnesses like sherry rehman) changed without explanation? the best answer i can give is: stupidity (in imagining some assumed benefit from lying) and arrogance (in not letting the doctors present their findings).

For what its worth, new video footing that clearly show/hear
gunshots first, descent into the suv and then the blast

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vt_rAygF5vM

Tahmed,

Why that extreme hissy fit of a post and the personal attacks? You know the extremely low opinion I have of most Pakistani generals; I am the last one who would advocate continued direct military rule of Pakistan. As far as I am concerned, the best thing Musharraf can do for Pakistan is to resign.

All I was saying was that if the autopsy showed massive blunt force trauma and not bullet or shrapnel wounds, why is that prima facie evidence of a massive coverup (or worse) by the Army? I assume the autopsy surgeons are competent enough to differentiate between a bullet entry wound, shrapnel and blunt force trauma.

I'd appreciate a rational reply.

Regards.

SR #490 seems like you are the last wise man left on earth. everyone else being a fool, going by your post.

#494 Posted by anil on December 29, 2007 4:33:01 pm

what's certain is that the "lever" sure as hell didn't kill her..

Re: # 491

Arjun_m

I do not understand this controversy. If the bullet punctured it through. There are only two possibilities: (a) bullet lodged itself somwhere in the body, or (b) it exited from the body and created another hole.

I cannot believe, the doctor would not have tried to locate the second hole, or that bullet is still lodged, somewhere. In hospital X-Ray locates the metal etc., under the ground, metal is locatable thru more powerful X-Rays and Microwave Sonars.

Doctor who attended Benazir may be an equal Joker to match Cheema who was flashing the X-Ray of the entry wound.

In #492 read "Dismissing this entire scenario by saying that the PPP is a PirFaqir/Fuedual party and that is why the Army steps in is quite ignorant"

as "Dismissing this entire scenario by saying that the PPP is a PirFaqir/Feudal party and that is why the Army steps in is quite ignoran

Bulleya has his reasoning upside down as usual. First he is trying to dismiss the People's party, the only party in Pakistan with mass popular support that has withstood the onslaught of the military/US and even its own leadership for several decades, based on the work and hope instilled by a charismatic leader ZAB. Now, when you have functioning political institutions then you can expect people to be politically mature and let the structure take over after the "charismatic leader" has passed. However when you have not even rudimentary political institutions existing, and the entire institution rested in the person of one man, then you cannot expect the "Bhutto" name to just vanish away and everything goes on hunky dory. That is not how it work and it cannot work any other way. Dismissing this entire scenario by saying that the PPP is a PirFaqir/Fuedual party and that is why the Army steps in is quite ignorant and characteristic of only an apologist for the military. Fatima Bhutto seems to be true to the socialistic principles of her grandfather and the spirit of the people's movement. She can lead the party much better than Benazir did once she cleans up the top leadership of the party. Come the right time I will graciously accept a post in the foreign ministry.....then we can rock and roll ...

lever killed here...right...

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11974

Th ere was wound in right Temporoparietal region. Shape was irregularly oval, measuring about 5 x 3 cms, just above the pinna of right ear. Edges were irregular. No surrounding wounds or blackening was seen. There was a big boggy swelling around the wound. Blood was continuously trickling down and whitish material that looked like brain matter was seen in the wound and on surrounding hair. Sharp bone edges were felt in wound. No foreign body was felt in the wound.

Wound was not further explored. Gentle aseptic dressing was used to cover the wound.

Bleeding from both the ears was seen, more so from the right ear. Slight trickle of blood was seen from right nostril also. Blood mixed with secretions was seen in the oral cavity also. Detailed external examination of the body did not reveal any other external injury.

DEATH BY INCOMPETENCE -- The Major Pakistani epidemic

Call it incompetence, in eptness, unprofessionalism, na-Laiqui, or whatever, but THAT is the single thread that is strewn across the death of BB.

First, incompetence of government systems that do not provide head-of-state equvalent security to principal candidates before an election.

Second, incompetence on the part of BB herself or her main handlers to not have "bought" a high international level professional security service instead of fools and thieves of Pakistan security industry. "Scare-crow Securities, Inc"

Third, incompetence on the part of the clown who was the so-called assassin. He could neither aim right to shoot his target nor blow himself up at the best space-time coordinate where his target could receive optimal damage.

Fourth, incompetence on the part of her crisis management and contingency management personnel to not get her to an appropriate facility on time. Med-vac helicopter should have always been with her since the Karachi bombing. She could surely afford it. Costs a fraction of the annual rates and property taxes on the Surrey Mansion.

Fifth, incompetence on part of the medical establishment. No CT scan was done on her upon arrival. Nor having a neurosurgeon at hand.

Only plain x-rays were taken. That is 1800s technology. You cannot assess a sub-dural hematoma without a CT scan. No CT scan was available.

Besides, surgeons who operate on gall bladders and perform appendectomies are not best suited for head injury trauma management.

...SR

Re: # 443 Manto ["...Bilawal zardari will succeed Benazir Bhutto as PPP leader. He is 19 years old..."]

Why not Zulfikar, Murtaza's son? Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, that is...

Friendly merger (or hostile take-over) with Bhutto Shaheed Group. Makes sense?

"I am seeing something major, a "Spectacular Attack" from the Al-Qaeda coming. In next few weeks or months.

The ISI/KSA/AlQaeda Triangle is behind this. We shall see in a few weeks or months."

You bet.......the only conspiracy I can see is coming from this evil nexus of ISI/AlQaeda/MMA ..... there could indeed be a race to grab the nukes by the Al Qaeda/ISI combine through the mayhem......

Re: # 486

Dude - this is pakiland... there is no point asking all these questions...

Somebody pointed out high-level political murders in india and elsewhere... in india - most such events have been investigated and prosecuted in open courts of law... gandhi murder - nathuram godse tried and convicted... indira murder - culprits tried and convicted ... Rajive murder - a bunch of people tried and convicted - warrant still out on the mastermind living in Jafna...

The case was thoroughly investigated and presented in open courts of law - no conspiracy theories, no hanky panky, no machinations...

Now let's look at pakiland... Liaqat dude murdered - no prosecution, nothing... Bhutto's judicial murder - no remedies... Zia murdered - no nothing... now BB murdered - the whole situation is being very actively covered up, confusion all around, basic procedures violated, common sense assulted, it's a mad house out there... even in this day and age of ever-present media and scrutiny - pakis have done everything to burry the truth - right under world's glare...

I mean - come on pakis...

Why was a post mortem not done?

Why was she burried within 24 hours?

Why is Zardari not speaking about it?

Why did her car went missing & then found?

Why was their blood if she only had a skull fracture?

Naheed & Sherry were with her & they saw blood & bullet wounds, why are they not taken seriously yet by western media?

Why did we washed the scene without our internal or external investogators ever seeing the evidence?

Is someone hiding something??

Do we yet know who killed ZIA?

Why were the top 17 generals were in the same plane against all protocol?

Do you know what Ojari Camp was all about??

Did a couple of nukes have changed hands in last 24-48 hands?

I am seeing something major, a "Spectacular Attack" from the Al-Qaeda coming. In next few weeks or months.

The ISI/KSA/AlQaeda Triangle is behind this. We shall see in a few weeks or months.

Are they two? The lastest pictures show the two guyz in inscrutable faces....

One was in-charge of shooting
Other was in-charge of suicide bombing.

That's why the left side of the car got damaged extensively.

Till now the picture was literally blocked out, esp after bombing. Now the full picture is coming out with the release of complete sequence of evens from a vantage point.

#476 Posted by bulleya on December 29, 2007 12:36:13 pm


then pakistan just might be about to hand its fate over to a 19 yr. old, who has lived most, if not all, of his life outside pakistan


Your fate is already in the hands of your army whose leadership lives, for all intents and purposes, outside pakistan..at least outside the pakistan most pakis know...

I Think Aitazaz Ahsen or Amin Fahim are the right people to lead Pakistan out of this mess, but surely they will not be given their chance & they may end up making new factions.

#481

Sir, I narrowed the field down to two - yet you want to narrow it down even further?!

-------------

I came across the following comment on the current Washington Post article on BB, which reaffirms my belief that there is no end to the Desi ingenuity to profit under any circumstances.

For a fee of just 500 Euros (please, no dollars), Hassan Ali's Tourism and Foreign Exchange Agency will arrange cancellation of your confirmed air tickets and hotel reservations to/in Pakistan. Convenient locations in Detroit, Vienna, VA, Pasadena, CA, Houston, Brooklyn and Lackawanna, NY.

#480 We dont need a dynasty, no matter how sad BB's death.

Like they claim to have said during the sixties, never trust anyone over thirty!

That leaves Bilawal and - if you were to fudge-up the numbers a bit - even Manto.

may be Fatima and Bilawal should get married..they will form a great political team.

Besides, the old fossils have let the awaam down so badly so often - perhaps it is time to let in some brand new young blood!

#476 Bulleya

Yaar, you have to realize what miaN Mushy has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt:

Age has absolutely no correlation to wisdom. Sometimes, the older one gets - the dumber one gets - the process continuing, till one only cares about saving more and more of one's own ass.

"A senior official of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) told TIME late Saturday that the slain former prime minister's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, will likely be named as her political heir and the new party leader on Sunday." TIME Magazine....

...i had talked with a ppp leader two years ago, and asked him who the successor to benazir would be......he had told me that bilawal is being prepared......i had laughed it off and thought he was joking.....

......if there is an election today, one would asusme ppp would win due to benazir's sympathy vote, and nawaz's boycott.......

.....if the above report by Time is true, then pakistan just might be about to hand its fate over to a 19 yr. old, who has lived most, if not all, of his life outside pakistan......

people often ask why the army can always dominate the politicians.......the above is a good answer.....i really hope the above isn't true.....then, again, ppp is a feudal/pir party and this group needs the bhutto name to keep their feudalism and piri faqiri on top......

bilawal cannot become pm, i believe....as one has to be a certain age....he has an elder cousin (in her 20s) who is anti-benazir.....i assume she is probably eyeing the position also......

Sorry about the inadvertent double-posting due to hardware malfunction.

Excerpted from Irfan Husain's column in the Dawn.

A death foretold

By Irfan Husain

DAYS after he announced that elections would be held in a couple of months in 1977, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was asked by a western journalist how many terms he expected to win. That was a time when there was no political threat on the horizon, and Bhutto reigned supreme.

“I am not looking beyond the next term,” he replied. “The Bhutto men do not live very long.” Nor, it seems, do the Bhutto women. I did not use this particular quotation during Benazir’s lifetime as I thought it would have been insensitive.

Since she returned on Oct 18, I had feared that she would be the victim of an assassin. When the terrible attack on her cavalcade killed 150 of her followers, but spared her, I was relieved, but not reassured about her safety.

Over the years, I have written many articles critical of her policies and her conduct. But I never stopped respecting her as a person. Although some have accused her of arrogance, as a civil servant and a journalist, on every occasion we met, she was always warm and courteous to me.

Our last meeting was in Lahore about three weeks ago. I was there on a brief visit, and rang up my old friend Asma Jehangir, human rights lawyer and activist, to ask if I could drop by to say hello that evening. She replied that Benazir was coming over, and I should be there by nine.

When I arrived, I ran into many old friends. Asma had gathered a number of people from civil society to talk to the PPP leader and express their concerns. Benazir looked her usual supremely confident self as she walked in.

When she saw me, she stopped to greet me and ask how I was after all these years. Then she proceeded to give a brief talk in which she outlined her party’s priorities and goals. During the question-answer session, she was relaxed and, even when she disagreed with an observation or comment, she maintained her poise. There was no hesitation or attempt to dodge a tough question.

As she got up to leave, she stopped to chat with me again, thanking me for an article I had written on the eve of her return to Pakistan in which I had welcomed her back. Her last words were to ask me to see her in Karachi. This meeting did not take place, alas, as she hit the campaign trail, and I flew to England.

While I worked as a young deputy secretary on her father’s speech-writing staff in the mid-seventies, she was abroad, first in the US, and then in England. It was not until General Zia overthrew ZAB in 1977 that I first saw Benazir.

She was a slim, awkward-looking girl as she stood on the stage in Rawalpindi to address an opposition rally. Her first public speech was brief and hesitant, and her Urdu was frankly terrible.

Over the years, I heard her speaking in public many times, and she improved with each outing. On her return after years of self-exile, I noticed how much more fluent in Urdu she had become.

Many people have compared her unfavourably with her father, but I have always thought she was a much kinder and more humane person than ZAB. Indeed, her weakness as a prime minister lay in her inability to be tough with people when it was necessary. Margaret Thatcher, a politician Benazir admired greatly, never had this problem.

During her second stint as prime minister, Saeed Hasan Khan, the writer and raconteur, once told me he was sitting in the office of Tanveer Ahmed Khan, then information secretary to the government. The green (secure) telephone rang with the PM at the other end. Saeed Bhai heard his host say that he did not know who Mazdak was, and nor was he aware why he had started writing against her. End of conversation.

Those were the days when I was a civil servant, and wrote under the pseudonym of Mazdak. Benazir Bhutto was well aware of this, but never used her prerogative as prime minister to have me dismissed, or otherwise disciplined, even when I was very critical of her government in this newspaper.

Her father would have had no compunction in having an insubordinate civil servant sacked. As a matter of fact, he had many removed or suspended for far lesser sins.

For all these and many other reasons, I was sickened, saddened and angered at her assassination. It seems such a waste of so much potential. For years, there has been a concerted campaign to smear her reputation in the media and in the drawing rooms of the privileged of Pakistan. Orchestrated by intelligence agencies, it has resonated deeply among the chattering classes. As it is politically incorrect to openly support the army, the rich and the powerful have taken to talking down politicians and the political process. This justifies the presence of the army, and this in turn suits those whose only concern is the accumulation of wealth.

But talk to the dispossessed of Pakistan, and you soon discover the PPP’s true constituency. You will also find out why, despite the army’s best efforts over the years, the Bhutto name is such a force in Pakistani politics.

Many of her detractors among the well-to-do are of the view that Benazir was elected prime minister twice simply because she was ZAB’s daughter. This might have been true in the initial phase of her political career, but after the years she spent in jail and under house arrest under Zia, she had gained an independent stature.

One thing she shared with her father was his genuine concern for the poor. Unlike those who practise their politics in drawing rooms and military establishments, both Bhuttos spent much time with the dispossessed and the vulnerable. Neither achieved as much for them as they would have liked, as they were not given enough time by their many enemies.

Until recently, my brothers and I had three nurses to look after my mother who needs a certain amount of help in her old age. Two of them are Christian, and when I asked them whom they would vote for, both replied that they and their families always voted for the PPP.

While the rich hate the Bhuttos, the poor love them. This is the legacy Benazir Bhutto is leaving behind. May she rest in peace after all these years of adversity.

Excerpted from Irfan Husain's column in the Dawn.

A death foretold

By Irfan Husain

DAYS after he announced that elections would be held in a couple of months in 1977, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was asked by a western journalist how many terms he expected to win. That was a time when there was no political threat on the horizon, and Bhutto reigned supreme.

“I am not looking beyond the next term,” he replied. “The Bhutto men do not live very long.” Nor, it seems, do the Bhutto women. I did not use this particular quotation during Benazir’s lifetime as I thought it would have been insensitive.

Since she returned on Oct 18, I had feared that she would be the victim of an assassin. When the terrible attack on her cavalcade killed 150 of her followers, but spared her, I was relieved, but not reassured about her safety.

Over the years, I have written many articles critical of her policies and her conduct. But I never stopped respecting her as a person. Although some have accused her of arrogance, as a civil servant and a journalist, on every occasion we met, she was always warm and courteous to me.

Our last meeting was in Lahore about three weeks ago. I was there on a brief visit, and rang up my old friend Asma Jehangir, human rights lawyer and activist, to ask if I could drop by to say hello that evening. She replied that Benazir was coming over, and I should be there by nine.

When I arrived, I ran into many old friends. Asma had gathered a number of people from civil society to talk to the PPP leader and express their concerns. Benazir looked her usual supremely confident self as she walked in.

When she saw me, she stopped to greet me and ask how I was after all these years. Then she proceeded to give a brief talk in which she outlined her party’s priorities and goals. During the question-answer session, she was relaxed and, even when she disagreed with an observation or comment, she maintained her poise. There was no hesitation or attempt to dodge a tough question.

As she got up to leave, she stopped to chat with me again, thanking me for an article I had written on the eve of her return to Pakistan in which I had welcomed her back. Her last words were to ask me to see her in Karachi. This meeting did not take place, alas, as she hit the campaign trail, and I flew to England.

While I worked as a young deputy secretary on her father’s speech-writing staff in the mid-seventies, she was abroad, first in the US, and then in England. It was not until General Zia overthrew ZAB in 1977 that I first saw Benazir.

She was a slim, awkward-looking girl as she stood on the stage in Rawalpindi to address an opposition rally. Her first public speech was brief and hesitant, and her Urdu was frankly terrible.

Over the years, I heard her speaking in public many times, and she improved with each outing. On her return after years of self-exile, I noticed how much more fluent in Urdu she had become.

Many people have compared her unfavourably with her father, but I have always thought she was a much kinder and more humane person than ZAB. Indeed, her weakness as a prime minister lay in her inability to be tough with people when it was necessary. Margaret Thatcher, a politician Benazir admired greatly, never had this problem.

During her second stint as prime minister, Saeed Hasan Khan, the writer and raconteur, once told me he was sitting in the office of Tanveer Ahmed Khan, then information secretary to the government. The green (secure) telephone rang with the PM at the other end. Saeed Bhai heard his host say that he did not know who Mazdak was, and nor was he aware why he had started writing against her. End of conversation.

Those were the days when I was a civil servant, and wrote under the pseudonym of Mazdak. Benazir Bhutto was well aware of this, but never used her prerogative as prime minister to have me dismissed, or otherwise disciplined, even when I was very critical of her government in this newspaper.

Her father would have had no compunction in having an insubordinate civil servant sacked. As a matter of fact, he had many removed or suspended for far lesser sins.

For all these and many other reasons, I was sickened, saddened and angered at her assassination. It seems such a waste of so much potential. For years, there has been a concerted campaign to smear her reputation in the media and in the drawing rooms of the privileged of Pakistan. Orchestrated by intelligence agencies, it has resonated deeply among the chattering classes. As it is politically incorrect to openly support the army, the rich and the powerful have taken to talking down politicians and the political process. This justifies the presence of the army, and this in turn suits those whose only concern is the accumulation of wealth.

But talk to the dispossessed of Pakistan, and you soon discover the PPP’s true constituency. You will also find out why, despite the army’s best efforts over the years, the Bhutto name is such a force in Pakistani politics.

Many of her detractors among the well-to-do are of the view that Benazir was elected prime minister twice simply because she was ZAB’s daughter. This might have been true in the initial phase of her political career, but after the years she spent in jail and under house arrest under Zia, she had gained an independent stature.

One thing she shared with her father was his genuine concern for the poor. Unlike those who practise their politics in drawing rooms and military establishments, both Bhuttos spent much time with the dispossessed and the vulnerable. Neither achieved as much for them as they would have liked, as they were not given enough time by their many enemies.

Until recently, my brothers and I had three nurses to look after my mother who needs a certain amount of help in her old age. Two of them are Christian, and when I asked them whom they would vote for, both replied that they and their families always voted for the PPP.

While the rich hate the Bhuttos, the poor love them. This is the legacy Benazir Bhutto is leaving behind. May she rest in peace after all these years of adversity.

#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"?

was the sunroof made in pureland? lexus sunroofs don't have levers.

Sunroof lever, indeed !!!!

Cheema and gang consider the rest of the world to consist of idiots.

Benazir was shot. PLAIN & SIMPLE. The suicide bomber was a dual purpose diversion cum backup. The state machinery was squarely involved. Hence the cleanup, vehicle switch etc.

Cheema and all should be laughed out of television screens.

mantolives: thanks. sorry once again to learn about your father's demise.

fuzair/krashid: you both question the significance of bullet vs blast theory of how bb was killed vs the significanceo of who did it.

in comparison, of course, the latter is of far greater importance.

HOWEVER, the former is significant because the government handling of the case provides insights into the minds of musharraf and his minions. And the basic insight is the utter stupidity of the brigadier and his handlers who rushed to spread their ignorance. And today, after Rehman's contradiction (in addition to that of the doctor whom the brigadier arrogantly overrode in typical pakistan military officer style), these clowns are saying they can re-open BB's grave!!

So - that is what is significant, Field Marshall Fuzair sahib. You military boys are the dummies of Pakistan, not the "smart" ones. You have run a fine nation to the ground with your arrogance. Time to go back to the barracks and know your place. And let the people of Pakistan breathe free. Thank you.

bravo,
and about what YLH tells us, PPP also fades away

Manto, a person's age is not important!

In addition, I'd like to reiterate that this alignment with the Americans that spelled our death knell from the very beignning was based on the tradition set by the anti-democracy MAJ. These issues were already discussed over two whole boards and the High Priest of the Church of MAJ, ran off on his motorbike like the Mullah Omar.

#442 Posted by ijaz_gul,

Yes Ijaz, the manner of death makes a hell of lot of difference, but only to those who have eyes to see. This will tell people who want to know who killed her.

But, why go to all the trouble when convenient truths are easy to be found?

Pat answers are there. Believe them or reject them. It is everyone's choice.

The info is all there, the media in Pakistan is censored but you can still get snippets from here and there ... either remain wishful, or make plans to either get out or stay and fight.

That's the choice.

Once again Manto posts BS about ZAB, ZAB the establishment man was different to ZAB the people's leader but there was no way for ZAB to become a people's leader without going through the "establishment". Going through the "establishment" and then laying the foundation of the first people's movement that Pakistan had seen or has seen to date is supreme achievement. Compared to him the BB leeched off of the foundation he built and was destroying it at its very roots by hobnobbing with the Americans and their occupation force in Pakistan, the Pakistan Army. She was not even half a pygmie compared to her father.

Just the simple fact that the military (the US occupation force) had to act to remove and kill him (and not only his popular speeches and acts like nationalization) prove that he was quite anti-imperialist. Regarding the meeting with China, which by the way my grandfather was in the middle of was not the opening of the "anti US eastern front", both the Chinese and the US had a mutual interest in their anti-Soviet stance and they both were equal partners in seeing that meeting happen. Pakistan was more concerned about its relationship with China at the momenent viz a viz than facilitating anything for the US. Nonetheless contacts with China started during the Yahya military regime. Just the fact that from being a front line state, ZAB pulled out of the Commonwealth, and Seato making the country the least alinged with the US that it had been at any time in its history before or after.

fuzair,
it makes a difference and you will see. Roger

Mohar,

I don't know why you've hit the roof. I merely said that you can't be the enemy. Never. Zeemax is sorely mistaken.

Please read again my post.

#440 Posted by fuzair.

The cause of death does not matter. She was assassinated - period. Rest is technical.

But you missed the point. You people think your cocoon in Islamabad will protect you, which is why you trivialize these progressively intensifying events. SR's coffee in Margalla foothills and the visit to Saeed Book bank and Jinnah Market when Benazir got her head drilled won't protect him or you. Please read the following again:

Fuzair, I would like to remind through you my friend SR, whose naive views you're promoting, that Islamabad is exactly 20 minutes from Pakistan.

Re: 442 Ijaz,

Why? Why does the manner of her death make a difference? She was murdered by people who hated her. Why would it make a difference if a murdered person was shot, stabbed, smothered or hit over the head?

The only possible difference it makes is if the suspect was, say, 20 feet away. In that case, if the murdered man was stabbed, then the suspect could not have committed the crime. If he was shot, then the suspect could have. This is certainly NOT the case here.

Could someone please explain to me what the govt could possibly gain from saying that the cause of death was massive blunt force trauma and not a bullet or shrapnel? As I said, no one is saying that she was not assasinated.

Bilawal zardari will succeed Benazir Bhutto as PPP leader.

He is 19 years old.

I don't know what to say.

Zeemax,
yes I saw it and posted again on UP. Each sequence I mention has a photo.\
To me the manner of her death makes a lot of difference.
Cheerios

yes I saw it and posted again on UP. Ecah sequence I mention has a photo

Zeemax #431

Yaar, what difference does it make how she died. The absolute immediate cause of death is always heart failure, isn't it? Bullet, bomb or blunt force; she was murdered. If I hit you on the head and you fall into a pond, does it matter if the autopsy surgeon says that you actually drowned? That the blow merely knocked you unconscious? Why would the autopsy surgeon saying that drowning was the cause of death mean that there was a coverup?

Re: # 438

Hindoo is indeed the enemy - in a theological sphere... outside that - not that much...

for YLH, when things go bad, nearest folks to come to his aid would probably be hinuds... see - even jinnah(pubh) wanted to come back to Bombay to live out his last days among hinuds... :)

mohar11,

I would have liked to believe that you are not the enemy, but I'm sorry Dr. Mohar, the Hindoo 'is' the enemy.

The Hindoo has his fingers all over this.

ijaz_gul,

Did you have a chance to look at the photo I posted on UP of inside of the Landcruiser?

TAhmed32
If I were Asif Zardari and I had doubt, I would ask for post mortem.
But does it matter if bullet missed her, or sharpnel did not hit her.
The question should be who is behind those missed bullet and missed sharpnel?

ylh

If a towering personality like BB couldn't surive - what chance a small fly like you have?... be careful...

These theories are educating me to know who is who especially the ones about skull/handle.

RE: Other posts:

ZAB's legacy is, at best, a mixed one. Many of us conveniently forget things like the Federal Security Force and the terrorization of his opponents, the nationalization of banks, schools and industrial firms, the lateral entry scheme into the CSP, etc, etc. Against that he did raise Pakistan's international profile....

I think the cons outweigh the pros....

I have never had a good word to say about Gen. Zia. What I said was that he merely implemented what ZAB started. No ZAB fan can deny that the 1973 Constitution is the most overtly Islamist Pakistani constitution and firmly enshrines the Sharia as the only source of legislation for Pakistan. For example, while Zia brought in Islamic Bankikng and Finance in Pakistan, it was the Constitution that mandates the abolition of Riba. While Zia instituionalized systematic discrimination against Ahmadis, it is the 1973 Constitution that declares them nonMuslim.

As far as Jinnah goes, of course he used Islam to mobilize the masses. So what? Gandhi used Hinduism to mobilize his masses. Neither Jinnah nor Nehru wanted to legislate on the basis of Islam or Hinduism. There is a difference, you know.

Re: # 428 ylh

Sad demise of BB should be a reminder for you... stay away from paki politics... otherwise, things may not workout very well for you... with your penchant for running your mouth too much on secularoon stuff - who knows?...

Despite of zee's sweet talks - be careful about him... he doesn't take secularoon stuff that well... he already told you - you haven't recognized who the enemy is... :)

#429 Posted by fuzair,

Fuzair, I would like to remind through you my friend SR, whose naive views you're promoting, that Islamabad is exactly 20 minutes from Pakistan.

Re: # 427 YLH

So now I am enemy too?... even if I kicked your ### once a while doesn't mean I am an enemy... :)

Anyhoo - speaking of "thrilled by misfortune" - I still remember the headlines - "7 of marriage party killed by freedom fighters"... The said freedom fighters were dispatched by BB - you yourselves said kashmir jihad was very close to Bhutto heart... So I am just returning the favor...

See - you pakis have to learn to fight like men... you got to stop whining when you are paid back in the same coin... be brave... a lot of bad things are coming down the road...

I'm copying SR's post on another thread since it addresses the issue of the direct cause of death. I agree with him that it is irrelvant if she was shot, hit by shrapnel or died because of severe blunt force trauma; she was assasinated, period. No one in the govt is saying that she died of whiplash because her driver confused the accelerator for the brake, hit the gas really hard and she smashed her head on the moonroof.

#20 Posted by SR on December 28, 2007 9:43:07 pm
Re: # 17 rafi aamer ["...SR: Please tell me that you are not taking this version without a grain of salt. If you are, I have a bridge that I am selling for a very reasonable price. Let me know if you are interested..."]

Reality can be stranger than fiction.

I have spoken to the surgeon at the hospital where she was taken (he's a former classmate), he did not attended her himself, but he believes that she might have been saved had there been a trained neurosurgery team on hand immediately. She was unconscious and teetering at the edge of life when she was brought in and precious time had been lost already. The general surgeon who handled her case did not have extensive experience in head trauma management as would a neurosurgeon. She had a massive sub-dural hematoma which the surgeon on duty tried to relieve with a burr hole, but it was too little too late.

Also, curiously, mid-way to the hospital her vehicle stopped and two of her most trusted lieutenants transferred her into another private car and sped off to a different hospital then the one she would have been normally going to. This added an additional ten minutes to the driving time amid evening traffic. Why? On one knows.

These inconvenient pieces of news, of course, are not something that suit anyone's agenda, so they are ignored. Truth is unimportant when a more "suitable" narrative can pass for the truth. "Benazir Bhutto died due to inadequate medical facilities" just does not make good news copy, compared to "Champion of Freedom and Democracy Martyred by terrorists..." does it?

My surgeon friend (who by the way is a die hard PPP supporter) was very emphatic that there was a "depressed fracture of the skull" and there was "no exit wound" ... It is the "exit woulds" of a bullet that are the real tell-tale signs. X-rays revealed "no foreign body."

This is just the way it is. But the point is that this still is very much an assassination. She wouldn't have ducked (or thrown off due to the shock wave of the blast) had there not been an attempt on her life. So I don't understand why the resistence to accepting these facts. She was ASSASSINATED. Period. The cause of death was a depressed fracture of the skull, not a bullet or shrapnel.

The bullet wound reports earlier on WERE NOT coming from the attending surgeons but from "others" who had seen the blood spots on her injured body. Why emotions are high, imagination can take flight.

Right now some elements are causing disruptions in traffic by sneaking around and dropping off one or two burning tires on busy roads, which force the incompetent police to barricade the road that lead to traffic jams. All this gives the impression that law and order are breaking down because the TV comes and focuses on that particular spot, even though thirty minutes later its all clear. The TV plays along with it because only by stirring up mass anxiety can television (1) get viewers glued to the tube and (2) keep the advertisers paying good money. The rest is all hogwash.

...SR

Tahmed,

I have been out of it for the last three weeks since my father passed away.

It was only after the sad demise of Benazir Bhutto that I turned back to politics.

Will keep you posted though.

Zeemax,

People like devkant and mohar are far too insignificant and small to be the "enemy".

These armchair warriors and self styled deep sprung wells of wisdom are merely people with nothing much in their lives to look forward to... Hence they do what most scounderels of Indian origin do: try and feel good by assuming some sort of air of superiority.

So they ge