Bhutto supporter killed in new Pakistan violence
Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:25am EST
By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Masked gunmen shot dead a
supporter of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto on Saturday, as violence triggered by her
assassination entered a third day and al Qaeda-linked
militants denied killing her.
Pakistan's government had said on Friday it had proof
al Qaeda was behind the suicide attack on the
54-year-old former prime minister, whose death has
plunged the nuclear-armed country into crisis and
triggered bloody protests.
But a spokesman for the al Qaeda leader the government
blamed denied involvement, and Bhutto's party
dismissed the official explanation, saying President
Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying
to cover up its failure to protect her.
Pakistanis remained on edge on Saturday, after
protesters torched shops, lorries, welfare centers and
ambulances overnight.
"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.
In Karachi, a 27-year-old man wearing a tunic made
from a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) flag was killed
by gunmen. He had just shouted "Bhutto is great" while
returning from the mausoleum where Bhutto was buried
on Friday, police said.
The killing brought to 33 the death toll from violence
since Thursday's gun and bomb attack, stoking fears a
January 8 election meant to restore civilian rule to
the U.S. ally could be put off.
MILITANT LEADER
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 spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said
the government must show solid evidence.
"The government is nervous," he said. "They are trying
to cover up their failure" to provide adequate
security.
Tens of thousands of Bhutto's supporters wept and beat
their heads as she was laid to rest on Friday. Troops
were called out to quell protests in her home province
of Sindh, where she had huge support, particularly
among the rural poor.
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."
Many mourners chanted slogans against Musharraf and
the United States, which backs the former general in
the hope he can ensure stability in the face of
Islamist violence and relies on Pakistan as an ally
against al Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taliban.
Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 but
left the army last month to become a civilian
president.
BLAST
Bhutto returned home from self-imposed exile in
October, hoping to become prime minister for a third
time.
She died when the force of the blast from a suicide
bomber smashed her head into the sun-roof of her car,
moments after she had waved to supporters at a rally,
the Interior Ministry said.
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.
An al Qaeda role, if confirmed, would show how
dramatically the group could still thwart U.S. foreign
policy, analyst said.
U.S. President George W. Bush has urged Pakistanis to
honor Bhutto's memory by going ahead with the
election.
So far the government has not announced any decision
to call off or postpone the vote, but analysts and
some other Pakistanis said the assassination,
following a wave of suicide attacks and the worsening
of an Islamist insurgency, could make going ahead
difficult.
"I don't think holding an election is possible," said
Mohammad Rashid, 34, a Karachi resident, who believed
the official version of Bhutto's death was a lie.
The opposition party led by former prime minister
Nawaz Sharif has said it would boycott the January
election if it goes ahead, and a spokesman said on
Saturday Sharif was trying to convince Bhutto's
Pakistan People's Party to do likewise.
"(Sharif) has gone into the same mode as when he
arrived in Pakistan. He feels elections under
Musharraf are just useless, that Musharraf is the
problem and his removal is more important than
elections," Nadir Chaudhri said by telephone.
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.
Bhutto escaped unhurt from a suicide attack in October
that killed about 140 people. The government said al
Qaeda was also behind that attack.
She had spoken of al Qaeda plots to kill her. But she
also had enemies in other quarters, including among
the powerful intelligence services and some allies of
Musharraf.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider, Zeeshan Haider
and Simon Gardner; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing
by Jerry Norton)
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and disclosure of relevant interests.
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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