Benazir Bhutto assassinated by Islamist Radicals

[Parinaz_M]

President Karzai refers to the sanctuaries and support provided by Pakistan to the Taliban. The 9/11 Commission in the US recently criticised Pakistan for the Taliban in Afghanistan and for terrorist violence in Kashmir.

All this did not, however, deter General Musharraf from brazenly claiming in a recent interview he gave to an Indian television channel, that there is no terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. Considerable progress has been made in promoting cooperation and people contacts between India and Pakistan during the last year.

For the first time since 1947, people in Jammu and Kashmir can travel across the Line of Control, from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad. Measures are being discussed to further promote trade, travel and tourism across the LOC. The Composite Dialogue to promote cooperation and confidence and address differences is scheduled to recommence on January 17.

















Musharraf is facing serious problems in Baluchistan, where denial of democratic freedom and autonomy has led to a tribal insurrection in the tribal areas of Waziristan, where 80000 Pakistani soldiers are confronting Pashtun tribesmen and their Taliban and Al Qaeda allies.

He has evidently chosen to divert public attention, by appearing uncompromising on Kashmir. As the dialogue process enjoys public support in both India and Pakistan, New Delhi should come up with more proposals for promoting people to people contacts and cooperation across the border and the line of control.

At the same time, India should leave Musharraf in no doubt that it will not hesitate to raise the costs for him diplomatically and otherwise, if he continues promoting violence and terrorism.

[Rasputin]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, under house arrest in Lahore, called yesterday for President Pervez Musharraf to quit and reached out to her main political rivals, paving the way for a common front among antigovernment forces that so far have been divided by mistrust and ambition.

Bhutto, whose arrest prevented her from leading a 210-mile procession from Lahore to the capital, has for several months been engaged in quiet power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf. But yesterday, after nine days of increasing tension following the president's declaration of emergency rule, she broke sharply with him, declaring she would not serve as prime minister during his presidency and suggesting her party would boycott parliamentary elections in January.

"I'm calling for General Musharraf to step down, to quit, to leave, to end martial law," Bhutto said in a telephone interview with foreign journalists. "I will not be able to work with General Musharraf, because I simply would not be able to believe anything he said to me."

Bhutto's sharp comments were made as antigovernment demonstrators battled police in several cities. Cable TV - available only by satellite because of a government-instituted blackout - showed running men, clouds of tear gas, and vehicles in flames. In the southern city of Karachi, protesters fired at two police stations after a violent clash with police, but no one was killed, authorities said. The house in Lahore where Bhutto was staying remained barricaded and surrounded by security forces.

At the same time, Bhutto reached out to competing political parties she had previously shunned, especially the Pakistan Muslim League headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party headed by Qazi Hussain Ahmed. She said they should agree on a "minimum agenda" and demand that Musharraf restore the constitution, reinstate deposed judges, and lift emergency rule.

Musharraf, under mounting international pressure, announced Saturday that elections would be held in January, but he would not say when he would lift the emergency, under which public meetings and rallies are banned and many private television stations have been shut down.

The Bush administration plans to send John Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, to Pakistan this week for talks with Musharraf. Officials said Negroponte will carry a tough message that emergency rule must be lifted in order to prevent elections from being discredited.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States is particularly concerned that elections take place "in a different atmosphere than now. You can't have free and fair elections with the kinds of restrictions on the media that you have, with the kinds of restrictions on assembly of opposition," she said during a visit to Tennessee.

The White House also acknowledged the growing turmoil in a country that has been the key to US counterterrorism efforts. Until now, Washington has been reluctant to publicly criticize Musharraf and quick to praise him for even small positive steps, arousing anger and frustration among many Pakistanis.

"The most important thing is for the country to return to its democratic path," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "That's why we are having to urge strongly President Musharraf to get back on the path to the constitution."

Until recently, the Bush administration also had supported Bhutto's exploration of a deal with Musharraf in a bid to help stabilize the country, which has a nuclear arsenal and a growing Islamic extremist movement. Bhutto, 54, returned from an eight-year exile last month in hopes of galvanizing popular support and eventually becoming prime minister for a third time.

In the days since, she has veered between contradictory images, holding protest marches one minute and being shuttered under house arrest the next, visiting diplomats under VIP escort while thousands of her supporters were being detained.

Yesterday, imprisoned in a mansion belonging to a legislator from her party and faced with mounting skepticism about her intentions, Bhutto seemed to have made her choice.

As police stopped a caravan of her supporters not 50 miles into their "long march" to the capital, she worked the phones from the house, issuing constant denunciations of the man she was once shown in cartoons as "marrying" in South Asian wedding garb.

"Pakistan and Musharraf cannot coexist. He must go. My dialogue with him is over," Bhutto told a cable TV channel. She said that once the seven-day detention order against her expires, she intends "to build a broad-based alliance with a one-point agenda for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law." Sources said intermediaries had arranged phone conversations involving her, Ahmed, Sharif, and another key political leader, Imran Khan.

Analysts and politicians said Bhutto's moves could be a significant step toward uniting what until now have been fractured and isolated protest efforts.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

II Part

Bhutto is talking to the former prime minister and the other oppositionist in Pakistan in order to forge a grand anti-Musharraf coalition. These forms of coalitions of convenience do not bode well. Once the common enemy is removed the coalition begins to implode, as one faction rises against the other, each thinking it deserves more than the other as if it were the indispensable part of the mass uprising that brought down the leader. In Tehran of 1978-79 the alliance of the un-holies against the Shah also included the mosque and secularist street. At the end, with the army neutralized, the Shah was forced out and in the aftermath internecine struggles the clergy prevailed.

If history has any value as a lesson is because it enables predictions of things to come. A Pakistan without Musharraf has two choices: A takeover by anti-Musharraf forces which will then give way to a radical Islamic regime, or a military coup that will “oust” Musharraf, very much like Turkey’s military when it ousts the civilian government that has gone bad. Mr. Negroponte would have been best advised to have encouraged the latter as an exit strategy for Musharraf.

The question that nags me the most is “Who is behind all this Islamist turmoil in Pakistan?” To answer it, I must ask, “Whom does this situation in Pakistan benefit?” I can think only of Saudi Arabia, who may want to tell Mr. Bush that all this talk about democracy and human rights and “McPolitics” shall cause greater mess, especially in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, than anyone can possibly control locally, much less from afar.

The nightmare scenario for Washington will be for Pakistan to fall into the hands of a radical Islamic regime. That regime will not be like the Taleban regime that briefly governed Afghanistan with the help of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. An Islamic regime in Pakistan, by its very Sunni nature, will command much greater empathy than Iran’s 1979 Shi’a revolutionaries ever could. As a non-Arab Islamic country, Pakistan will challenge Saudi Arabia for the soul of Islam (Note: the majority of Moslems are non-Arab and Sunni).

Do you think India will sit idly by so Pakistan can become a mouse that roars?

If this world is far too complicated for the U.S. to order, then the U.S. should butt out of Musharraf’s and Pakistan’s business. Hajji Bush, I say, please cultivate your own garden! As they say in Southwest Asia, there is a limit to khar-kosdeh-bazi, which in Urdu means, I think, “mind your own sister.”

[Rasputin]

On Saturday November 3, President Pervez Musharraf announced that he had imposed martial law in Pakistan. Earlier, I discussed the background events which led to the coup. Now, more than a fortnight after the situation began, it has reached a point from which there appears to be no easy solution. Musharraf has promised to introduce elections by January 9, 2008 but he has set no date for the removal of the state of emergency.

Musharraf had gained the support of the United States because he promised to act as an ally in the "war on terror". He vowed to clamp down on the Al Qaeda extremists who had hidden out in North Waziristan in the region adjoining the border with Afghanistan. Little has been achieved on that front. Decisive action was taken by the United States to target Al Qaeda extremists - as happened on January 13, 2006 when the U.S. mounted an airstrike on Damadola near the Afghan border, where an Al Qaeda meeting was taking place. The strike had been designed to hit Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al Qaeda. In practice, the strike killed Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, aka Abu Khabab, Al Qaeda's explosives and poisons expert.

On December 1, 2005, an explosion took place in Haisori, a village near Miranshah in North Waziristan. Pakistani authorities claimed that the explosion was caused by men in a house, preparing bombs. Days later, it transpired that one of those killed in the blast was Abu Hamza Rabia, the Egyptian-born third in command of Al Qaeda. Eyewitnesses claimed that the house had been targeted by missiles, apparently fired from a US Predator drone. When Hayatullah Khan, a local journalist, showed photographs of shrapnel from the blast which bore English wording, he was kidnapped the following day, apparently by Islamists. His body was found in July, 2006. Hayatullah Khan had been shot in the head.

There are reasons to doubt the official Pakistani version of events. It has been suggested that Hayatullah Khan was abducted and killed by members of ISI - the national intelligence agency. Reporters Sans Frontiers has claimed that at least 21 journalists have been kidnapped by the ISI since Musharraf came to power. Journalists who do not reside locally have been banned from working in Pakistan's tribal areas without official consent.

One of Musharraf's political opponents was the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Choudary, who had condemned arrests of thousands of civilians by the ISI. These had been made "without due process". On March 9 this year, and again during the recent state of emergency, Choudary was deposed by Musharraf.

Under Musharraf, the Taliban - which was assisted in its rise to power in Afghanistan by the intelligence agency ISI - has not only been able to flourish in North-West Frontier Province, but has grown in power and influence. Instead of acting to crush their influence, Musharraf allowed the Islamist parties of the MMA to broker a "peace deal" with the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan on September 5, 2006. This deal actually reimbursed members of the Taliban for their "losses" incurred in military battles.

After Britain's London bombings of 7/7, Musharraf had promised to stamp down on extremist madrassas. Two of the 7/7 bombers were believed to attend such an establishment in Pakistan. Musharraf ordered a clampdown, and demanded registration of all madrassas. One of the madrassas to offer violent resistance in 2005 was the Jamia Hafsa, from the Red Mosque complex in Islamabad, the capital. This year, students of the two madrassas from the Red Mosque were involved in kidnappings, arson and threats of suicide attack. Musharraf's plan to register all madrassas was eventually abandoned. Its main opponent was religious affairs minister Ijaz ul-Haq, son of the dictator Zia ul-Haq who had initially encouraged mass construction of madrassas. Zia ul-Haq had been a frequent worshipper at the Red Mosque. Until the disorder which began in January this year, senior figures from the ISI also worshipped at the Red Mosque.

Imran Khan

Former cricketer Imran Khan opposes the war on terror, but his case illustrates clearly just how far Musharraf is prepared to trash democratic values. The day after Musharraf announced martial law, Imran Khan was placed under house arrest. He was the first member of the parliament to be treated this way. Hs party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) has only one member in the National Assembly, Khan himself. Though Imran Khan is critical of U.S. foreign policy, he has never represented a threat to Musharraf's regime. The day after his house arrest was imposed, Khan escaped and went into hiding.

Using his vast wealth, Khan had established a cancer hospital, named after his late mother. The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in Punjab province provides much-needed treatment and research in a country where reliable medical treatment is unavailable to many. For 75 percent of cancer patients, treatment at the hospital is free. On Friday November 9, Pakistani police surrounded the hospital, in case Imran Khan should choose to hide there.

The police move effectively closed down the hospital. That specialist cancer treatment should be denied to civilians, merely because Musharraf wants to make an example of his vocal critic, shows how morally destitute his regime has become.

On Wednesday, Imran Khan appeared in public for the first time since martial law was imposed. At Punjab University in Lahore, he surfaced on a campus, where hundreds of students were mounting a demonstration against the "emergency" measures. He was carried aloft on students' shoulders and then the situation changed. Members of the student wing of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party blocked his way, seized Khan and dragged him into the university's high-energy physics center, effectively holding him prisoner. Khan emerged shortly after with his captors, and was then placed into a police car and driven away.

Initially, it had been assumed that the official charges against Khan were to be based upon public order legislation. Later in the day, it was announced that Imran Khan, who has never condoned terrorism in his political career, has been charged under anti-terrorism legislation. If a high-profile public figure can be treated in this fashion, the situation for ordinary civilians is dire.

Two days before his arrest, Khan managed to send out a text message to his lawyer in Britain, where he claimed that his life was in danger. At that time, he was concerned more about the actions of the secular Muttahida Qaumi Moovement (MQM) party, whose leader Altaf Hussain is based in Britain. Hussain arrived in the U.K. in 1992 after fleeing from a murder charge which had been brought against him. Earlier this year, Khan had tried and failed to have the MQM head prosecuted in Britain for causing violence in Karachi. 42 people died in riots on May 12. In a SMS text mesage, Khan had written to his lawyer: "Once MQM [Mr Hussain] thinks he is safe then my Karachi workers and my own life will be at great risk."

Now, Khan's life is threatened by the military dictatorship. The potential sentence under Pakistan's anti-terrorism legislation is life imprisonment or death. Jemima Khan, Imran Khan's former wife, said on British television on Wednesday night that several lawyers who have been detained under Musharraf's state of emergency are "known to have been tortured."

The Army Act

When Musharraf imposed martial law, he suspended the constitution, removing key protections for civilians, such as freedom of speech, freedom of association, civilians' right to equality under the law and equal protection under the law, and even Article 9 of the national constitution - their right to life.

Already, TV cameras have shown on a daily basis civilian protesters being arrested for appearing in the streets to protest Musharraf's dictatorship. The police in Pakistan are notorious for corruption and partial enforcement of the law. In most cases, civilians were punched or beaten with batons as they were bundled into police vehicles. The full number of civilians placed in detention under the "state of emergency" is not known, but it runs into hundreds.

Musharraf's latest move in his battle against the citizenry of Pakistan is to revive the Army Act of 1953. This ruling was introduced after Islamist factions such as the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party had been attempting to attack and kill members of the peaceful Ahmadiyyah sect. The religious riots had led to the first imposition of martial law, only six years after Pakistan had become an independent and officially secular democracy.

The Army Act has not only been updated, it has also been back-dated. Now, any civilian accused of certain crimes will not have the right to be tried in a court of law. Instead, such civilians will face courts martial. The ordinance does not relate just to crimes committed in the present. Crimes which are said to have been committed since January 1, 2003, will now be tried under court martials.

The range of these crimes include categories imposed from the time when Pakistan was under British rule. Certain crimes listed under the Pakistan Penal Code will now automatically result in courts martial.

According to Pakistan newspaper Dawn, offenses ranging from libel to murder will now fall under the jurisdiction of the army. Asma Jahangir is chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She was among the first people to be placed under house arrest when the coup was announced. She said of the backdating of the Army Act: "This has also allowed the government to legitimize all illegal acts of disappearances carried out by intelligence agencies with impunity."

[Rasputin]

According to Pakistan newspaper Dawn, offenses ranging from libel to murder will now fall under the jurisdiction of the army. Asma Jahangir is chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She was among the first people to be placed under house arrest when the coup was announced. She said of the backdating of the Army Act: "This has also allowed the government to legitimize all illegal acts of disappearances carried out by intelligence agencies with impunity."

A former ambassador to the United States, Abida Hussain, was also arrested last week for "disturbing the peace". She said from jail: "Does George Bush see that now even sports heroes, leaders of mega-parties and humble servants of the republic are behind bars? It's a dangerous situation, and Musharraf is a dangerous and desperate man."

Already, journalists who have expressed concern at the coup are being detained, and as a result, reporting of events outside of the main cities has become unreliable and contradictory.

Benazir Bhutto

The U.S. State Department had encouraged Musharraf to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to return to the nation. She arrived back in Pakistan on October 18, and at the time it was thought that she could stand for election as president. This scenario could conceivably have allowed Musharraf to be the president and Bhutto to be prime minister. It would not have been an ideal example of democracy, especially considering charges of corruption made against Bhutto, but it would have been a step along the way to true democracy.

On Friday November 9, Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest, to prevent her from attending a protest rally in Rawalpindi. An armed police cordon was set up around her home. Shortly after this, her house arrest was lifted. The United States welcomed the decision to lift her detention.

On Tuesday, November , Bhutto was once again placed under house arrest. She had been intending to engage in a protest march on Tuesday. This march by members of her party, lasting 185 miles, was called "The Long March". After she was placed under house arrest for a second time, the march failed to go ahead.

For Bhutto, this action appeared to be the last straw. The day before she was placed under house arrest, she had already ruled out any chance of power-sharing with Musharraf. She declared: "We are saying no to any more talks. We cannot work with anyone who has suspended the Constitution, imposed emergency rule, and oppressed the judiciary. That's why we are holding the 'long march'."

Though deeply disliked by Islamist parties, Bhutto has gained from a surge in popularity since Musharraf's coup d'etat. Her outspoken criticism of the man who had urged her to share power has been seen as patriotic. She plays up to this image, by claiming that she is acting "to save Pakistan... I know it is dangerous but what alternative is there when the country is in danger?"

On Wednesday, members of Bhutto's party were arrested.

Now, Bhutto has become so hostile to Musharraf that she is prepared to work together with another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. This individual had been ousted by Musharraf in his coup d'etat of December 1999. Nawaz Sharif had been in power when Pakistan carried out its first nuclear tests on May 28, 1998. Aware of potential economic sanctions, Nawaz had imposed his own state of emergency when the three initial nuclear tests took place, and had frozen all foreign investors' accounts in Pakistan's banks.

On Wednesday, Bhutto told the Washington Post: "I am now working with all political leaders, including Nawaz Sharif. We feel all the political forces should come together. We may work together or we may work side by side. The issue is that we both agree there should be democracy. The important thing is that Pakistan is returned to its people, that martial law is ended, that General Musharraf steps down."

Nawaz Sharif has been in exile. He tried to return to Pakistan recently, but was immediately deported to Saudi Arabia, in defiance of an August ruling issued by Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftekar Choudary, who was deposed when the coup took place. Nawaz is publicly declaring his approval of the notion of forming an official alliance with Bhutto.

Nawaz Sharif is not regarded by U.S. officials as a positive choice for leadership of Pakistan, but Musharraf's suspension of the constitution is forging some strange alliances.

From Tuesday to Thursday, demonstrators from Bhutto's PPP party had engaged in noisy protests about her detention in Karachi. On the morning of Thursday, three young people were shot dead. The youngest two were aged 9 and 12. Five other people were injured. Police denied any responsibility, with the Karachi police chief claiming: "It is possible that they were gunned down by protesters or by gangsters who are also rioting."

On Thursday, November 15, Benazir Bhutto's house arrest was lifted, as was the home detention of leading human rights activist Asma Jahangir. Bhutto was visited by US Consul General Bryan Hunt. He spoke to her about the possibility of her being able to work with Musharraf. She told reporters: "I told him that it was very difficult to work with someone who instead of taking us toward democracy took us back towards military dictatorship."

[Rasputin]

The Nuclear Threat

Pakistan's nuclear capacity was developed illegally using technology and equipment smuggled by Abul Qadeer Khan. There are an estimated 24 to 55 nuclear bombs in Pakistan, under the control of the army. The safety of these devices is a source of debate.

Muhammad Sadiq, spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Office maintained that the nation's atomic weaponry was safe and were not going to fall into the hands of extremists or terrorists. He said: "Our strategic assets are as safe as that of any other nuclear state." He added: "There are multiple layers of command and control and the weapons are not in danger of falling into any hands. Pakistan's nuclear program is very well-guarded."

The former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. State Department, Richard Armitage, claimed that the nuclear weaponry was safe. He said: "That nuclear arsenal is, one, dispersed, and second, carefully guarded by the army. I think - in the short or even medium term - should things turn badly, we are not going to worry about nuclear weapons in the first instance."

John Bolton of the American Enterprise Institute, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is less confident. He said: "It's a political issue. If the military comes unstuck, if it divides, then the technical fixes won't protect those weapons. Even the military is filled with Islamic fundamentalists. I'd have to put securing those weapons at the top of our agenda."

Geoff Morrell, press secretary at the Pentagon, has said this week: "At this point, we have no concerns. We believe that they are under the appropriate control."

During the first week of the coup, Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concerns about the security of the nuclear weaponry in Pakistan. He had said then: "Any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that has experienced a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is a primary concern."

Currently, the U.S. sends much of its supplies to the military in Afghanistan via Pakistan. In the event of the current situation deteriorating further, the Pentagon is working on an alternative contingency plan to keep its troops in Afghanistan served with adequate supply lines.

Musharraf himself has claimed that the nuclear arsenal will remain safe, but only if they are under the control of the army. He said on Saturday: "They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically... The military is there - as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them."

Nawaz Sharif, head of the rival wing to Musharraf's party, argued that the nuclear weapons would remain safe, whether Musharraf remained as president or not.

Opportunities For Islamists

The Jamaat-e-Islami party has traditionally opposed Musharraf, yet members of the student wing supported the imprisonment of the moderate politician Imran Khan. When Musharraf supervised a form of democracy which allowed the party and its Islamist allies to hold 65 seats in the National Assembly, they still led calls for revolution and for the death of Musharraf.

During the military dictatorship of General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled from 1977 until 1988, the Jamaat-e-Islami party benefited through the imposition of severe sharia-based legislation. Though the leading lights of the party, and also the MMA coalition of Islamist parties, oppose the imposition of martial law, they appear to be exploiting the situation to present themselves as defenders of the constitution - even though they wish to see Pakistan under sharia law.

The head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party is Qazi Hussain Ahmed. He instigated the so-called "peace accord" in Waziristan which gave concessions to the Pakistan Taliban. On Tuesday, the Daily Times claimed that reports had been received that Qazi Hussain Ahmed, described as a "Taliban commander" had sent suicide bombers to Lahore city in Punjab province. Qazi Hussain Ahmed is the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami and president of the MMA. He is known to support Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, and has previously been accused of sheltering members of Al Qaeda.

Benazir Bhutto has claimed that she has contacted Qazi Hussain Ahmed about mounting an official opposition to Musharraf. Whether the Islamist leader will join forces with Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and others is unknown, but he supports her calls for the restoration of the recently-deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Choudary. In early summer, Jamaat members protested with lawyers against Choudary's March dismissal. Qazi has announced: "We will launch country wide movement along with the lawyers and political parties to end military dictatorship."

Qazi has claimed that he had sent a member of his party to rescue Imran Khan from student members of the Jamaat party who had imprisoned him, but his envoy had arrived too late.

In Regal Chowk in volatile Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, several Jamaat-e-Islami activists were arrested on Monday for protesting the emergency rulings. On Friday, Qazi Hussain Ahmed claimed that the state of emergency was pushing Pakistan to the brink of civil war.

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of the US-designated terror group Jamaat ud-Dawah (not banned in Pakistan) argued that the only solution to the national crisis was the imposition of Sharia. He said: "Islamic Sharia is the only possible solution to the current political crisis faced by the country. Freedom without giving sacrifices is not possible and many of us have now realized it."

The Regional Assembly of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) was entirely dominated by the MMA coalition. It was suspended during Musharraf's emergency decree, but NWFP is currently sliding into anarchy with local warlords and foreign Islamists attempting to impose Sharia law.

Swat is a district of NWFP which was formerly regarded as a popular tourist destination. Its lush valleys and mountains earned it the title of the "Switzerland" of Pakistan. This year, the situation of Islamists taking control of 59 villages in Swat was one of the factors which were blamed for the imposition of martial law. The emergency siatuation has done nothing to contain the actions of Islamists in this region. At sunset on Tuesday this week, the town of Alpuri in Swat fell under the control of local Taliban leader Maulana Muhammad Alam and 500 of his followers. Six out of Swat's eight sub-districts have now fallen under Islamist control.

The administrative capital of Swat, the town of Mingora, has been placed under a curfew, as has the adjoining district of Malakand. The army has been engaged in fierce fighting in the region. Some of the Islamists are said to be foreign. Some may be of Uzbek origin and connected with Al Qaeda, and others are known to be Afghan Taliban members.

On Thursday, the most recent Swat district to fall to the Islamists had been reclaimed by the army. The loss of life was high - over two days of fighting 53 militants were killed. According to eyewitness accounts, twenty civilians were killed in the fighting.

In Parachinar in Kurram Agency, one of the tribal regions near the Afghan border, at least ninety-one people have been killed in sectarian religious war. Eighty of these are civilians. After Friday prayers Sunni and Shia groups fought each other with rocket launchers and mortars. More than 100 people have been injured.

While the army acts to control the outbreaks of separate uprisings, the tribal regions of Waziristan where Al Qaeda and the Pakistan Taliban have a strong power base are less easy to contain. On Saturday night, a bomb exploded in a house in North Waziristan, killing a woman inside. The bomb had been placed near her bed, and had been triggered by remote control. The woman was the widow of murdered journalist Hayatullah Khan, whose photographs had caused embarrassment to both the Pakistani authorities and to the local Islamists. Her murder at this time raises again questions about who had kidnapped and murdered Hayatullah Khan - Islamists or the ISI?

[Rasputin]

Benazir Bhutto assassinated by Islamist Radicals

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, doctors, a spokesman for her party and other officials said.

Bhutto suffered bullet wounds in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks were reporting.

Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets as a shocked Pakistan absorbed the news of Bhutto's assassination.

Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle to leave the rally.

Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital -- less than two miles from the bombing scene -- where doctors pronounced her dead.

Former Pakistan government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan said while it appeared Bhutto was shot, it was unclear if the bullet wounds to her head and neck were caused by a shooting or if it was shrapnel from the bomb.

The bomber detonated as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said.

The number of wounded was not immediately known. However, video of the scene showed ambulances lined up to take many to hospitals.

The attack came just hours after four supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport Thursday, Pakistan police said.

Several other members of Sharif's party were wounded, police said.

Bhutto, who led Paksitan from 1988 to 1990 and was the first female prime minister of any Islamic nation, was participating in the parliamentary election set for January 8, hoping for a third term.Read about Bhutto's turbulent history.

A terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people on the day she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, who was at the scene of both bombings, said Thursday's blast was not as powerful as that October attack.

Thursday's attacks come less than two weeks after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lifted an emergency declaration he said was necessary to secure his country from terrorists.

[Rasputin]

بی نظیر بوتو کشته شد


بمبگذاری در محل سخنرانی بی نظیر بوتو و پس از پایان سخنرانی او رخ داد
وزارت کشور پاکستان اعلام کرد که بی نظیر بوتو، نخست وزیر سابق این کشور طی انفجاری که در اجتماع انتخاباتی در شهر راولپندی رخ داد، جان باخته است.
انفجار دقایقی پس از سخنرانی خانم بوتو رخ داد، گزارشهای اولیه حاکی از زخمی شدن او بود اما وزارت کشور پاکستان اعلام کرده که وی در اتاق عمل در بیمارستان عمومی راولپندی درگذشته است.

حزب مردم پاکستان که خانم بوتو رهبری آن را به عهده داشت نیز خبر کشته شدن وی را تأیید و زمان مرگ او را شش و شانزده دقیقه بعدازظهر اعلام کرده است.

پس از اعلام مرگ بی نظیر بوتو، هواداران او در مقابل بیمارستان عمومی راولپندی جمع شدند و علیه پرویز مشرف، رئیس جمهور پاکستان شعار دادند.

ترور بی نظیر بوتو درست دوازده روز پیش از برگزاری انتخابات مجلس قانونگذاری پاکستان انجام شد. خانم بوتو رهبری بخش عمده مخالفان پرویز مشرف را در نبرد انتخاباتی در دست داشت.

وی طی سالهای 1988 تا 1996 نخست وزیر پاکستان بود و نخستین زن در این کشور بود که به چنین مقامی دست یافت، خانم بوتو پس از کنار رفتن از قدرت همراه با همسرش، آصف علی زرداری، متهم به فساد مالی و سوء استفاده از قدرت شد و کشورش را ترک گفت.

او در هیجدهم اکتبر گذشته پس از چند سال دوری از کشور به پاکستان برگشت و هنگام ورودش انفجاری در محلی که از وی استقبال شد رخ داد که در جریان آن تعدادی کشته شدند.

[mike435]

wow very tragic the price she was willing to pay for democracy

[indian_blues]

she has to pay the price for what she did... she was the mother of taliban and this is what happen when u help growing a poisonous snake...

still sad.. let her soul rest in peace.

[Dokhtar Bandari]

Nice...Al Quida killing Taliban and Taliban killing Al Quida...what could be more beautiful than that...keep it in the family...that is their brand of Muslims for you...hooooraaay.

[Rasputin]

she has to pay the price for what she did... she was the mother of taliban and this is what happen when u help growing a poisonous snake...

still sad.. let her soul rest in peace.

she was a spy like the all of the asian politician . (iran-india-pakistan,arab countries and etc ...) . but i am sad for her family ... God forgive her .

[Rasputin]

It was the noon of January 8, 2008. A large crowd was waiting for Bilawal Bhutto Zardini's speech. He is the son of the famous Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minster of Pakistan who was assassinated two days ago in a mysterious event. Now, Bilawal, a 19-year-old history student of Oxford University was the chairmen of the Pakistan's People Party, the greatest secular party of the nation, although he did not like political jobs. There is a high risk for a terrorist action during or after today's event. For a teenager it seemed so soon to worry about death, but it was the reality of life for Pakistan's new sudden hero.

Bilawal was sitting in his private room in Bhutto's family palace. He was thinking about what was going to happen in the evening of that day when he was supposed to speak for a large crowd with huge expectations of him. The wind was making a horrible sound outside as if the trees were crying. Bilawal was thinking about his university, classmates, and the beautiful girl he liked to share the rest of his life with. Will the dirty politics let him reach his goals?

National and international elements forced him to accept the invitation to enter politics unwillingly. During last two days, the American embassy had put him under a real pressure. He had no other option other than accepting the headmastership of PPP, and now it was the time for a child to grow up.

He sat up and walked to the desk. Only three hours were left the speech and he hasn't had practiced. He took a look at the words; he did not like them, but he seemed to have no other choice. He knew he would have to sacrifice many of his interests when he accepted such a huge, tiring responsibility.

The maid knocked the door and told that the car was ready and that he needed to go. He walked out so slowly. He sat in the car and closed his eyes and dreamed of his mother. He didn't even have time to get along with his mom's death, and now, two days after such a miserable incident he is supposed to stand up for the rights of a large group of people while he seems barely to be able to defend his own rights.

After the speech, he waved to the people and came back to the car. It was hard, he believed, but he knew as his father once told him ìyour life is hard, and each day after the other it will get harder not easierî. He opened his wallet and looked at his girlfriend's picture. Every day she looked prettier and prettier to him. He hadn't talked to her for almost a month, and he felt that he really misses her. He felt like somebody who has lost a treasure. Then, he felt extremely tired. He decided to take a nap. He hoped to dream about his mother without whom he really feels lonely and with no support.

Later in the night CNN reported the bombing in his car which led to killing of one hundred people including Bilawal himself. The police found the picture of a girl near his dead body.

(Don't take this article serious; it is just a school assignment.)