In the melee, he says he was pushed back. “And then I heard three gunshots. Within seconds, there was a huge blast and I flew and hit the wall behind,” he says, pointing to a five-feet wall on the other side of the road. Nayeem doesn’t remember anything after that.

His friend Mohamad Babar, 34, says: “I saw the man whose photos were later released near the wall. But I wasn’t near him when the blast took place.”

The exact spot where Bhutto died is in the middle of a road. But that hasn’t stopped PPP leaders from demanding that a memorial be built there. “We have already asked the Punjab government to make a monument here. Anyway, we are sure to build a monument because we will soon have our own government in place, whether the elections happen on January 8 or later,” says PPP’s local candidate Zumard Khan, who received Bhutto on the stage that day.

Inside the Liaquat Bagh, a six-acre dusty park, PPP activists spend a balmy afternoon sitting around a shamiana erected on the stage from where Bhutto addressed her last speech. “It was a very passionate speech, and she was quite at ease as the park was pretty full,” says Raza Ghufta Ahmed, secretary of the PPP’s youth wing in Rawalpindi, standing in front of Bhutto’s portrait with bouquets and diyas.

As PPP’s senate leader Babar Awan drops by at about 2 pm, a brief prayer service is held. Post-mourning, hot plates of vegetable biryani are served. The conversation either centres around the upcoming polls or ensuring justice to Bhutto’s killers. They take heart from the fact that the Punjab Government has released posters announcing a Rs 1-crore cash reward for anyone providing information to catch the terrorists. “At least the government is showing some interest, we will do the rest when we come to power,” says Awan.

... contd.