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Title: Bhutto party accuses government
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Published: Dec 29, 2007
Author: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/
Post Date: 2007-12-29 20:07:56 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 182
Comments: 12
Bhutto party accuses government Zeeshan Haider , Reuters Published: Saturday, December 29, 2007 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Benazir Bhutto's party challenged the Pakistani government's version of the opposition leader's assassination as fresh violence on Saturday stoked fears that January 8 elections could be put off. Al Qaeda-linked militants denied being behind the killing of the 54-year-old former prime minister although the government of nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in fighting terrorism, had said on Friday it had proof of their involvement. Bhutto's party dismissed the government account, saying there was no hard evidence and President Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her. A protester holds a picture of slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi December 29, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad MasoodView Larger Image View Larger Image A protester holds a picture of slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi December 29, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font: * * * * * * * * AddThis Social Bookmark Button In renewed violence, three Bhutto supporters were shot dead. The death toll stood at 44 since her assassination in a gun and bomb attack on Thursday. A close aide who prepared Bhutto's body for burial dismissed as "ludicrous" a government theory that she died after hitting her head on a sunroof during the suicide attack. Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said Bhutto was shot in the head. But the government stuck to its version, saying Bhutto's party was welcome to exhume her corpse to check. Pakistanis remained on edge on Saturday after protesters torched shops, lorries, welfare centers and ambulances overnight. She was laid to rest on Friday. "There's a lot of rioting going on in my neighborhood, Clifton. Everything has been burned up. Shops have been looted," Ali Khan, 36, country manager for Audi Pakistan, told Reuters as he stood outside his Audi garage in Karachi's business district. Masked gunmen in the city shot dead a 27-year-old man wearing a tunic made from the PPP flag on Saturday. He had just shouted "Bhutto is great" while returning from the mausoleum where Bhutto was buried on Friday, police said. Security forces shot dead two others among 400 PPP activists trying to break into an oilfield facility near Hyderabad. Four men were shot dead in another incident in Karachi. AL QAEDA Late on Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference: "We have intelligence intercepts indicating that al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is behind (Bhutto's) assassination." However, a spokesman for Mehsud denied the claim. "I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location. A PPP spokesman said the government must show hard evidence. "The government is nervous," he said. "They are trying to cover up their failure" to provide adequate security. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, told the BBC her will would be read out to a meeting of the PPP by her son on Sunday. Asked if he wanted to lead the party, Zardari replied: "It depends on the party and it depends on the will." Bhutto returned home from self-imposed exile in October, hoping to become prime minister for a third time. She escaped unhurt from a suicide attack then that killed about 140 people. The government said al Qaeda was also behind that attack. Washington had encouraged Bhutto, relatively liberal by Pakistan standards and an outspoken opponent of Islamic militancy and violence. Her death wrecked U.S. hopes of a power-sharing agreement between her and Musharraf. Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 but left the army last month to become a civilian president. Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font: * * * * * * * * AddThis Social Bookmark Button President George W. Bush has urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto's memory by going ahead with the election, but a White House spokesman said on Saturday it was up to Pakistan's authorities to determine the timing. So far the government has not announced any decision to call off or postpone the vote, but the Election Commission says it is planning an emergency meeting on Monday. The opposition party led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said it would boycott the election if it goes ahead. A spokesman said on Saturday Sharif was trying to convince Bhutto's PPP to do likewise. Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November in what was seen as an attempt to stop the judiciary from vetoing his re-election as president. He lifted emergency rule this month. Bhutto, who became the Muslim world's first democratically elected woman prime minister in 1988, was buried alongside her father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup. (Additional reporting by Kamran Haider, Zeeshan Haider and Simon Gardner; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Matthew Tostevin) * 1 * 2 * next page
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#1. To: tom007 (#0)
High-flier: Benazir Bhutto was president of the Oxford Union (left) and president of Pakistan
7.
CFR: A Conversation with Benazir Bhutto (Video)
She's beautiful, eh?
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." ~ Patrick Henry
Yes she was....
Killing One Person Is Murder...Killing 100,000 is Foreign Policy!
Thanks for posting the video. She says a few things that could have riled up the pawns involved with drug running in Afghanistan, and possibly factions in the army in Pakistan. Certainly what she's saying would worry the Islamists. In other words, she was talking about too much reform.
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." ~ Patrick Henry
Police abandoned security posts before Bhutto assassination
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." ~ Patrick Henry
Interesting video. Hard not to believe Mushar is not behind this one way or the other.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" She also let slip in that interview with David Frost in November that bin Laden had been killed by Omar Sheikh.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Bhutto's first year at Oxford was also my last year studying there. Already then, in her first year, people were talking about how impressive she was as a speaker at the Oxford Union.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
#2. To: tom007 (#0)
Local Pakistani TV shows video image of Bhutto assassins
#3. To: tom007 (#0)
#4. To: Zipporah (#2)
#5. To: TwentyTwelve (#1)
#6. To: wudidiz (#5)
She's beautiful, eh?
#7. To: TwentyTwelve (#4)
#8. To: lizza76 (#6)
#9. To: buckeye (#7)
#10. To: Zipporah (#2)
#11. To: buckeye (#7)
#12. To: TwentyTwelve (#1)
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