Pakistan Bomb Blast: Kills ex-PM Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi   
'Pakistan Times' Federal Bureau

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Ms Benazir Bhutto was killed after succumbing to her injuries in an apparent suicide attack at the Pakistan Peoples Party rally in Rawalpindi Thursday.

Initial reports say that Ms Benazir Bhutto and PPP information Secretary Ms Sherry Rehman were severely injured at a blast soon after she finished her address to a public rally at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.

The attacker struck while Ms Bhutto was leaving the venue and the blast severely damaged her vehicle, Interior ministry Spokesman Brig (Retd) Cheema has been quoted as saying.

Ms Benazir Bhutto breathed her last Thursday after being seriously injured in a bomb blast in Liaqat Bagh after addressing a public rally, hospital and interior ministry sources said.

Several people were also killed in an apparent suicide attack at the public rally by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at Liaqat Bagh, police said. The blast occurred soon after the rally ended and Ms Bhutto had left the venue.

Eye witnesses report a large plume of black smoke preceded by a loud bang that shattered windows of the nearby buildings.

The blast occurred at the exit gate of Liaqat Bagh, as soon as Bhutto’s vehicle left the venue. Interior Ministry sources said it was too early to determine the nature of the blast, however said the evidence suggested that it could be a suicide attack.

Police and Rescue 1122 vehicles rushed to the scene and the dead and injured were taken to nearby District Headquarters Hospital.

An earlier report had said that Ms Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, aides said.

"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.

A party security adviser said Ms Bhutto was shot in neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. A gunman then blew himself up.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

People smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

At least 20 others were killed in the blast that took place as Bhutto left a political rally where she addressed thousands of supporters in her campaign for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

Ms Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18.

Her homecoming procession in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Born on June 21, 1953 in Karachi, Ms Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to be a Prime Minister of the Muslim world. She was twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

After completing her early education in Pakistan, Ms Bhutto pursued her higher education in the United States. From 1969 to 1973, she attended Radcliffe College, and then Harvard University, where she obtained a B.A. degree in comparative government.

Between 1973 and 1977, Ms Bhutto studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She completed a course in International Law and Diplomacy while at Oxford.

Ms Benazir had returned to Pakistan on October 18 this year after ending her exile since in 1998.

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