Red Alert- Pakistan

The breaking news bulletin, hosted by Liz Vargas, of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader, and presidential candidate, Benazir Bhutto. ABC News, Thursday morning, 27-Dec-2007

Bhutto killed in rally bombing
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent December 28, 2007

PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed last night in a suicide bombing at an election rally she had just addressed in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Ms Bhutto, 54, who was rushed to hospital after the attack, died on the operating table.

"At 6.16pm, she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Ms Bhutto's party, at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

A senior official of Pakistan's Interior Ministry confirmed that Ms Bhutto had died but there were conflicting accounts of how she was killed.

A party security adviser said Ms Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, before the gunman blew himself up.

"The man first fired at Bhutto's vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up," police officer Mohammad Shahid said last night.

There were also reports Ms Bhutto had been hit by ball bearings and pellets in the bomb hidden in the jacket worn by the suicide bomber.

Sources close to her family said the former Pakistani prime minister never regained consciousness after taking the full impact of the blast.

Ms Bhutto's death plunges Pakistan into what many will regard as the gravest crisis in its 60 years of independence, and there were immediate suggestions last night that the national elections due on January 8 will now have to be cancelled.

Links:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22979419-601,00.html

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28415_Bhutto_Assassinated#comments