In a simple four-point story (‘Here’s what happened’), The Daily Times on Friday summed up the event that’s shaken Pakistan: “Benazir Bhutto was leaving Liaquat Bagh after addressing the rally when her vehicle, a Black Lexus bulletproof vehicle, stopped near the venue’s gate where PPP workers were shouting party slogans. Benazir came out from the sunroof of her vehicle to respond to her supporters’ slogans when a motorcyclist opened Kalashnikov fire on her. Benazir fell inside her vehicle after receiving bullet injuries on her head and neck. The attacker blew himself up after firing the shots.”

Beyond the immediate fallout of the incident, Qazi Asif, “a reporter from Larkana”, wrote on “covering the Bhuttos”. (Larkana, also known for its proximity to Mohenjodaro, is the Bhuttos’ home place.) Wrote Asif: “Her words echo in my ears: ‘Tum kitnay Bhutto marogay? Har ghar say Bhutto niklay ga!’ How many Bhuttos will you kill? Every house will issue forth a Bhutto. This is what she had cried across the microphone to the crowd at Municipal Stadium in Larkana where I saw her last, on December 23. Her fist shook in the air. As a reporter from Larkana, I often reported on the Pakistan Peoples Party. I remember the village of Janat ji Wandh in a katcha area of Naudero where she used to arrange a medical camp every year. This village was said to be the most native village of her family.”

Rawalpindi trio

In its editorial ‘Farewell Benazir’, The News marked the irony in the site of her assassination: “Within a few hundred yards of where her father was hanged by a military dictator and at the same spot where another popular prime minister of Pakistan (Liaquat) was shot dead years ago, Benazir Bhutto, the unfortunate daughter of the east, the most popular leader of the country, the bold and fearless crusader for democratic and human rights, the only leader who genuinely represented the federation that is Pakistan, was assassinated by an assassin’s bullet in Rawalpindi, just 70 days after she returned from self-exile.”

... contd.