World leaders condemn killing

FROM London to Washington to Delhi and points in between, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto produced dismay and condemnation, along with concern for the stability of the volatile region.

In India, which has fought three wars against Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Ms Bhutto was irreplaceable, and noted she had striven to improve relations between the two nuclear-armed countries.

“I was deeply shocked and horrified to hear of the heinous assassination,” he said. “In her death, the subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country.”

Ms Bhutto’s assassination “is not only bad for Pakistan,” said former Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh. “It is bad for the entire region.”

The United States had been at the forefront of foreign powers trying to arrange reconciliation between Ms Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as army chief under heavy US pressure and earlier this month lifted a state of emergency, in the hope it would put Pakistan back on the road to democracy.

“Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally,” said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey. “It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy.”

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was “deeply shocked”.

“Benazir Bhutto knew the risks of her return to campaign, but was convinced that her country needed her. This is a time for restraint, but also unity,” he said.

Italian prime minister Romano Prodi said he was filled with grief and called Ms Bhutto “a woman who chose to fight her battle until the end with a single weapon, the one of dialogue and political debate”.

“The difficult path toward peace and democracy in that region must not be stopped, and Bhutto’s sacrifice will serve as the strongest example for those who do not surrender to terrorism.”

In Moscow, Anatoly Safonov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy on international co-operation against terrorism, expressed fears the assassination would trigger violent repercussions.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who knew Ms Bhutto, said he hailed her memory and called on the international community to support Pakistan and its democracy.

Key events in Bhutto’s political career and run-up to her assassination

* April 4, 1979: Ms Bhutto’s father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed for the murder of a political opponent two years after he was ousted as prime minister in a coup.

* April 10, 1986: Ms Bhutto returns from exile in London to lead the Pakistan People’s Party, founded by her father.

* December 1, 1988: Ms Bhutto, 35, wins parliamentary elections to become the first woman prime minister of a Muslim nation.

* August 6, 1990: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses Bhutto’s government, citing corruption and a failure to control ethnic violence.

* October 19, 1993: Bhutto takes oath for second term as prime minister.

* November 5, 1996: President Farooq Leghari dismisses Bhutto’s second administration amid accusations of nepotism and undermining the justice system.

* October 12: General Pervez Musharraf, the head of the armed forces, seizes power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup.

* October 18: Bhutto returns to Pakistan more than eight years of exile. She narrowly escapes a suicide bombing that kills 140 people during a homecoming procession in Karachi.

* December 1: Bhutto launches election campaign, urging resistance against Islamic militancy.

* December 8: Three people killed in an attack on one of Bhutto’s offices.

* December 25: Bhutto accuses Musharraf of failing to stop the spread of Islamic militants and promises a crack down.

* December 27: An attacker strikes minutes after Bhutto addresses thousands of supporters in Rawalpindi. She is fatally shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blows himself up, killing at least 20 others.