The 10th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has been observed. All arrangements for the congregation at Garhi Khuda Bux have been finalized with stepped up security to avoid any untoward incident on the occasion. A large number of leaders and workers of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are expected to visit the last abode of the first Muslim woman elected as Prime Minister to pay respects.
The convoys of the leaders and workers from Punjab and other provinces have reached Larkana to attend the death anniversary of their martyred leader. On Dec 27, 2007, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated soon after she finished an election rally at Liaquat Bagh in garrison city of Rawalpindi. A suicide bomber shot at her and then blew himself up in a gun and bomb attack on the fateful day.
Ten years down the road, the prime suspects behind her assassination have not been brought to book yet. Of late, an anti-terrorism court acquitted five suspects and awarded imprisonment of 17 years to two police officers – Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad – in the assassination of the slain PPP leader.
Later, a division bench of the Lahore High Court suspended the conviction of the two officers and released them on bail against a surety of Rs one million each. Former military dictator Pervaiz Musharraf, who PPP alleged was behind her assassination was declared fugitive by the court in the case.
Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Pakistan’s first democratically elected premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, entered in politics after the elected government of her father was removed in a military coup in July 1977 and was hanged on April 4, 1979, by the regime of General
Zia-ul Haq after sham court trial. After untiring and arduous struggle as well as
sacrifices, she became prime minister twice in the 1990s, but her governments were dissolved before completing mandated tenure.
