
Benazir Bhutto Pakistan's exiled Prime Minister who founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a centre-left political party in Pakistan affiliated to the Socialist International. Oxford and Harvard educated, she was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, having been twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was sworn in for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993 Bhutto was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari.
Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998, where she remained until she returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after reaching an understanding with President Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn.
She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani of Sindhi descent, and Begum Nusrat Bhutto, a Pakistani of Iranian-Kurdish descent. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, who came to Larkana Sindh before partition from his native town of Bhatto Kalan, which was situated in the Indian state of Haryana.
She was assassinated on 27 December 2007, in a combined shooting and suicide bomb attack during a political rally of the Pakistan Peoples Party in the Liaquat National Bagh in Rawalpindi. Ex-government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan said, although it appeared she had been shot, it was unclear whether her wounds had been caused by a shooting or shrapnel from the bomb. Eyewitnesses to the assassination stated to various news agencies that Ms. Bhutto had stood up through the sunroof of the white Toyota Land Cruiser that ferried her to the rally to wave at supporters who were cheering her. It was then a "thin man" on a motorcycle, carrying an AK-47 rifle, fired two shots, one into Bhutto's neck, and she collapsed, falling down into the vehicle. After this, the assailant proceeded to detonate an explosive which resulted in the deaths of himself and at least 22 others, while many others were injured. Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital where she died at 6:16 p.m. local time (1316 UTC). The gunshot to the neck was reported as the cause of death, according to the Pakistani Interior Ministry. FBI and Homeland Security stated it cited Islamist Web sites as saying al-Qaida had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Her burial is in her hometown in Larkana in Sind next to her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's grave.
And then we lose another strong Islam woman.
May Allah bless her and keep her.
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