Benazir Bhutto Dead

Pakistani Politician Benazir Bhutto has died.

CNN said that she has bullet wounds, the BBC doesn't, however it seems that the suicide bomber shot at her first.

It is a sad day for the state of Pakistani politics, especially since it looked like things were starting to clear up, the problem involving the presidency was sorted, and an election was scheduled for next year.

Already I have heard people say it was the work of Musharraf, but I am not so sure. She survived an attack earlier this year when she returned and that was due to extremists who didn't like a woman in a position of power.

Because of that I suspect that it was more likely to be an extremist then anyone else. From a political standpoint Musharraf would have had a far easier way of removing her, the government could have removed the amnesty on charging her for corruption.

She may have done a few bad things in her political life, but then again she was a politician. She also showed the world that a Muslim woman could be elected and run a Muslim country shattering people's opinions of the religion and the supposed cultural mindset that has been placed upon Muslim countries.

Because of that I think that we should all say:

Rest in Peace Benazir Bhutto


Update

Since I have been to sleep, more information has come to light. The BBC article now has a map showing the location.

The attacks have been condemned around the world and people are worried that this is a sign of slow 'Talebanisation' of the country. Although President Musharraf has called for calm protests have erupted around the country with one man killed in a shoot out and a protest in Peshwar was forcefully broken up.

The family of Bhutto are preparing to bury her and there has been even more violence reported.

Amidst all this chaos Nawaz Sharif, the rival of Bhutto was calling for Musharraf to step down and said that his party (which would be PML-N the Sharif section of the Pakistan Muslim League) would boycott the elections.

I fail to see what that would prove. Most likely Sharif is still harbouring anger towards Musharraf because it was Sharif who appointed him, and it was the actions of Sharif that caused him to lose power. Technically Sharif is in the country illegally after he was convicted by the anti-terrorism courts for hijacking and was permitted to stay out of jail as long as he was in exile in Saudi Arabia. He also cannot hold an office for 21 years.

Now we just have to wait and see what will happen.


On a more annoying note, the JREF forum already has a thread in the "Conspiracy Theories" section on her death, and on Freedom Crows Nest various posters there are pushing CTs as well.