Day to Day, December 27, 2007 · Aniq Zafer, a media adviser to Benazir Bhutto's campaign, is near Bhutto's home in Islamabad.
"People are weeping ... people are quite angry, and they are blaming the state for not protecting their leader," he says.
Zafer says it is too early to discuss the future of her Pakistan Peoples Party, though the election is in 11 days.
"The world will judge," he says, "who will benefit from taking her out."
Benazir Bhutto died after gunfire and a suicide bomb attack targeted her at a campaign rally outside the Pakistani capital on Thursday. Twenty others were also believed killed in the attack.
Her assassination sparked fears of mass protests as angry supporters poured onto streets in several Pakistani cities, burning tires and vehicles.
A party security adviser said Bhutto, 54, was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi. A suicide bomber then blew himself up, the official said.
However, other reports indicated she was shot while greeting supporters as she stood in the sunroof of a white SUV.
At least 20 others were killed in the blast that took place after Bhutto gave a political speech to thousands of supporters in her campaign for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
"Ms. Bhutto came back from a very comfortable life abroad. She came back to fight these forces of extremism," said a tearful and distraught Farah Ispahani, part of Bhutto's political team. "She came back for this country. She was a real daughter of the soil of Pakistan."
At the scene of the attack, the road was stained with blood and people screamed for ambulances. Others gave water to the wounded lying in the street, witnesses said.
Immediately after Bhutto was declared dead, supporters went on a rampage, attacking police and burning tires and election campaign posters in several cities. At the hospital where she died, some smashed glass and chanted slogans against her political rival, President Pervez Musharraf.
In Karachi, shop owners closed as protesters set tires on fire, torching several vehicles and burning a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.
In Rawalpindi, Bhutto's supporters burned election posters from the ruling party and attacked police, who fled the scene. Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and many other parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto's supporters set fire to a bus, pelted stones at shops and blocked city roads.
Musharraf, who announced three days of mourning, urged calm.
"I want to appeal to the nation to remain peaceful and exercise restraint," he said.
Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister and leader of a rival opposition party, demanded Musharraf resign immediately and announced his party would boycott the upcoming election, leading to speculation that the polls could be delayed or called off altogether.
Bhutto twice served as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996.
A suicide bomb exploded at a Bhutto rally on Oct. 18, after she returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile. More than 140 people were killed in that attack. Since her homecoming, Bhutto frequently had acknowledged the danger she faced.
At Thursday's rally she reiterated those concerns.
"I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger. People are worried. We will bring the country out of this crisis," Bhutto said.
Following Thursday's attack, Bhutto's supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to her rival, President Musharraf.
No one claimed responsibility for the assassination, but suspicion was likely to fall on resurgent Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban, who hated Bhutto for her close ties to the United States and support for the war on terrorism.
Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser, said she was inside her vehicle at the time of the attack.
"Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away," he said.
Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery. She died about an hour after the attack.
President Bush offered his condolences to Bhutto's family and friends.
"We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism. We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life," he said.
For months, the United States has been encouraging Musharraf to reach some kind of political accommodation with his opponents, particularly Bhutto.
Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff where they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the election, an official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos and created fears of mass protests and violence across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
"I hope she's remembered as the greatest daughter this country has ever produced and the first woman prime minister ever elected in the Muslim world," Ispahani said through tears.
From NPR reports and The Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17645564