Benazir’s Assassination: A Tragedy Foretold
By Sreeram Chaulia, IANS
The assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto by snipers and suicide bombers Dec 27 in Rawalpindi has left the world shell shocked. One could see it coming, though, as a predictable outcome of the tailspin into which Pakistan’s polity and society have hurtled through incessant militarisation. Beyond the semantics about derailment of democracy, Benazir’s violent end brings into sharp relief the inseparability of Pakistan’s governance and social life from Kalashnikov and jehad culture.
Since a major political figure has been killed on the cusp of elections, the obvious blame for the grisly event will fall on General Pervez Musharraf’s regime. From security lapses to connivance of the military-intelligence establishment, a number of theories are likely to be discussed for years to come about who were responsible for this historic tragedy.
When Benazir’s homecoming convoy in Karachi was rocked by a massive suicide attack in October, killing some 150 people, informed journalist Amir Mir commented that the act “had the approval of some jehadi-minded high and mighty in the Pakistani intelligence establishment”. The main executor of that attack, Abdul Rehman Sindhi of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was mysteriously released from custody by the authorities just before Benazir’s return from exile. How this maulvi managed to pierce the security cover provided to Benazir without being frisked and why none of the Intelligence Bureau officials died in the attack are smoking guns. The entire episode had the telltale signs of an act of state outsourced to religiously motivated hirelings. [more]