Bhutto foresaw danger from jihadis

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — I was supposed to interview Benazir Bhutto on Thursday night.

I had spent the day in Peshawar, the Pakistani city closest to the tribal areas where militant Islamists are now in control. I was talking to Pakistani experts about the expanding influence of religious militants and suicide bombers in a country with nuclear weapons.

As I began the three-hour drive back to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, I got a call: Bhutto, two-time prime minister, female leader of one of Pakistan's most powerful political parties, had been killed by a suicide bomber with a gun after speaking at an election rally.

When I reached the darkened streets of Islamabad, most stores had shut, and little knots of people were clustered outside with cell phones, calling relatives and trying to express their shock. Mohammed Ahmed, a young electronics salesman at a Sony Center, told me, "Everyone is nervous. This is a disaster for the country. She was a great leader and there will be aftershocks from her death."

The mood in the country reminds me of the overwhelming grief, the clinging to family and television news, that followed John F. Kennedy's assassination. But there's a big difference: Pakistanis are angry at this murder, an anger that has already led to violence and could plunge the country into chaos. And just about every Pakistani with whom I spoke blamed her death not on al-Qaida, but on their own government — and the United States.

Benazir, as Pakistanis called her, had already cheated death in October, on the day she made an emotional return from exile to run in elections. A suicide bomb narrowly missed her but killed around 140 supporters. The government had done little to investigate that bombing, and many of her followers believed government intelligence agencies were behind the attack.

Once Bhutto was home, President Pervez Musharraf reneged on a power-sharing deal with her that had been brokered by the United States. He also declared martial law, and threw Supreme Court judges and lawyers in jail. Many doubted elections would ever be held.

"People are pointing a finger at the government" for Bhutto's death, I was told by Athar Minallah, a prominent Pakistani lawyer, "because they think it wanted to postpone the election and didn't want Benazir back."

Others argue that the military might have killed Bhutto because she wanted to curb its influence and that of intelligence agencies. They note that she was killed in Rawalpindi, the city where the military is headquartered. Rumors are swirling that the bullet that killed her came from a sniper, and that the suicide bomber was meant to cover his tracks.