Security officials often point out that there is no protection against a determined assassin or terrorist. This is especially true of the most determined — and most lethal — type of assailant: the suicide killer. The world has seen this again in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s first female prime minister.
Bhutto returned to her country only two months ago in a bid for a political comeback. The other day, in the middle of a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, a man walked up to her and reportedly pumped her with bullets before blowing himself up, killing at least 20 other people in his suicide.
The history of Bhutto’s family is replete with controversy and bloodshed. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown in a coup and executed. A youthful Benazir continued the family’s political tradition and went on to become Pakistan’s prime minister twice. Her husband later spent years in prison for corruption perpetrated during her watch.
Bhutto returned from exile after Pakistani President Pervez Mushar-raf launched a crackdown on political dissent, firing the chief justice and arresting thousands of legal professionals and critical journalists during a state of emergency. Before the crackdown, Musharraf had been engaged in a difficult balancing act, implementing democratic reforms while battling al-Qaeda linked terrorists and local Islamic fundamentalists. For several years his country registered positive economic growth, and there were hopes that he would achieve his aim of building a prosperous secular democracy. His crackdown on dissent tainted his achievements and later compelled him to quit his other post as army chief and call parliamentary elections.
Bhutto was haunted by the specter of death as soon as she returned. In October at her homecoming rally, 139 people were killed in Pakistan’s worst terrorist attack. Security officials reportedly warned her that Islamist extremists wanted to kill her. The other day a deadly plot was carried out, plunging Pakistan into chaos, and showing the world once again how elusive peace can be.