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Pakistan's Bhutto slain in suicide attack

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack yesterday, just two months after the former prime minister returned from exile for a political comeback.

Bhutto, a two-time former prime minister, had just addressed a campaign rally for next month's parliamentary elections when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the venue, killing her and at least 10 other people.

There were unconfirmed reports that the attacker had also opened fire on her with a weapon before the explosion.

"It may have been pellets packed into the suicide bomber's vest that hit her," interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told reporters.

"At 6:16pm she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears.

One man with a flag of Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

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

At least 20 others were killed in the blast that took place as Bhutto left the rally, where she addressed thousands of supporters to canvas votes for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

It was the second suicide attack at a Bhutto event since she had returned from exile in October, aiming to contest the elections, and comes amid an unprecedented wave of violence in the country.

The deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history targeted her homecoming rally just hours after her return, leaving 139 people dead.

After that attack, authorities repeatedly warned her they had information that Islamic militants were trying to kill her.

The killing will deepen the political crisis in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt the vote and Musharraf's opponents -- including Bhutto -- accused him of planning to rig the result.

There have been more than 40 suicide attacks in Pakistan this year that have left at least 770 people dead.

Bhutto, educated at Oxford and Harvard, became the first female prime minister of a Muslim country when she took the helm in Pakistan in 1988. Her father, also a Pakistani prime minister, was executed in 1979.
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