Supporters of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are commemorating her 55th birthday in mournful ceremonies in Pakistan.
Dozens of somber-looking men are gathering Saturday at her mausoleum near her hometown of Naudero to offer prayers. Some men are carrying large Bhutto portraits and demanding the arrest of her killers.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s new government renamed the international airport in the capital Islamabad after Bhutto.
Bhutto, whose party heads the ruling coalition, was killed in a suicide gun and bomb attack after she addressed an election rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27.
Bhutto’s party has planned gatherings across Pakistan on Saturday to celebrate her life and political martyrdom, while her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, was due to attend a ceremony at her ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Baksh, where she is buried.
A wave of sympathy helped Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party win the February 18 election.
“She is not amongst us today, yet she lives in the hearts and memory of the people of Pakistan,” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said in a statement issued on the eve of her 55th birthday after he had renamed Islamabad International airport as Benazir Bhutto International.
The airport is actually on the outskirts in Rawalpindi, Islamabad’s larger neighbor.
The Rawalpindi hospital where Bhutto was taken after the attack was also renamed after her as was the main road linking the city to the nearby hill resort of Murree.
Pakistan has formally requested a UN investigation into Bhutto’s assassination.
President Pervez Musharraf, whose allies were defeated in the February elections, has opposed a UN investigation and the previous government blamed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud of being behind the conspiracy to kill Bhutto.
The PPP harbors deep suspicion over the official findings and doubts whether Mehsud, who has denied involvement, was the real culprit.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
RSS