Benazir Bhutto Assassinated at Campaign Rally

Benazir Bhutto was waving to supporters through the sunroof of her armored Toyota Land Cruiser after a campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, when an attacker detonated a suicide bomb beside the vehicle, killing her and twenty-three bystanders. Bhutto, who was campaigning to become Prime Minister of Pakistan for a third time, had survived a nearly identical assassination attempt just two months earlier, when a bomb at her homecoming parade in Karachi killed 139 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistani history. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan in October 2007 after eight years of self-imposed exile, following a power-sharing arrangement brokered with President Pervez Musharraf under heavy American pressure. The Bush administration saw her as the best hope for a democratic counterweight to Musharraf increasingly authoritarian rule and a civilian partner in the war on terror. Bhutto herself knew the risks. She had publicly identified three specific groups she believed would try to kill her, including elements within Pakistan own intelligence services, and had written a letter before her return naming suspects in the event of her assassination. The circumstances remain contested. Pakistan initially claimed she died from hitting her head on the sunroof lever while ducking. A UN investigation concluded she died from the blast and criticized authorities for hosing down the crime scene within hours, destroying evidence. Musharraf intelligence chief was later charged, though the case dragged through courts for years. Bhutto was the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority country, serving as Prime Minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996, both terms ending in dismissal on corruption charges she maintained were political. Her assassination triggered nationwide riots and reshaped Pakistani politics. Her husband Asif Ali Zardari became president in 2008.