RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Enraged crowds rioted across Pakistan and hopes for democracy hung by a thread after Benazir Bhutto was gunned down Thursday as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle. The death of President Pervez Musharraf’s most powerful opponent threw the nation into chaos just 12 days before elections and threatened its already unsteady role as a key fighter against Islamic terrorism.
The murder of Bhutto, one of Pakistan’s most famous and enduring politicians, sparked violence that killed at least nine people.
Another opposition politician, Nawaz Sharif, announced he was boycotting Jan. 8 parliamentary elections in which Bhutto was hoping to recapture the premiership, and Musharraf reportedly weighed canceling the poll.
Bhutto, 54, was struck down as an unknown gunman opened fire and, according to witnesses and police, blew himself up, killing 20 other people.
Musharraf blamed Islamic terrorists, pledging in a nationally televised speech that “we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out.”
President Bush, who spoke briefly by phone with Musharraf, looked tense as he spoke to reporters, denouncing the “murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy.”
U.S. intelligence officials are trying to determine who was behind the attack, said Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the director of national intelligence. But he added, “We’re in no position right now to confirm who may have been responsible for the attack.”
Bhutto’s death left her Pakistan People’s Party leaderless and plunged the Muslim nation of 160 million into violence and recriminations, with Bhutto supporters accusing Musharraf’s government of failing to protect her in the wake of death threats and previous attempts on her life.
As the news spread, supporters gathered at the hospital where Bhutto had been taken, smashed glass doors, stoned cars and chanted, “Killer, Killer, Musharraf.”
Emergency meeting called
Musharraf called senior staff into an emergency meeting to discuss a response to the killing and whether to postpone the election, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. Musharraf also announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, with all businesses, schools and banks to close.
The killing appeared to shut off a possible avenue for a credible return to democracy after eight years under Musharraf’s increasingly unpopular rule, and left a string of unanswered questions, chiefly whether it could strengthen Musharraf by eliminating a strong rival, or weaken him by sparking uncontrollable riots.
The U.S. was struggling to reformulate its plan to stabilize the country based on a rapprochement between Bhutto and Musharraf.
Pakistani analysts were plunged into gloom.
“The most serious setback”
“This assassination is the most serious setback for democracy in Pakistan,” said Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore’s University of Management Sciences. “It shows extremists are powerful enough to disrupt the democratic process.”
Sharif, another former premier who now leads an opposition party, demanded Musharraf resign immediately. He announced his party would boycott the elections, seen as vital to restoring democracy. Musharraf, a former army chief, toppled Sharif in a 1999 coup.
“Musharraf is the cause of all the problems,” Sharif said.
Next to Musharraf, Bhutto was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat Islamic extremism.
Addressing more than 5,000 supporters Thursday in Rawalpindi, Bhutto dismissed the notion that Pakistan needed foreigners to help quell resurgent militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the area bordering Afghanistan.
“Why should foreign troops come in? We can take care of this, I can take care of this, you can take care of this,” she said.
As Bhutto left the rally in a white SUV, youths chanted her name and supportive slogans, said Sardar Qamar Hayyat, an official from Bhutto’s party who was about 10 yards away.
A smiling Bhutto stuck her head out of the sunroof and responded, he said.
“Then I saw a thin young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down,” he said.
Bhutto was rushed into surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said. The spinal-cord damage was too severe to save her, he said.
“At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.
Hours later, supporters carried Bhutto’s body out of the hospital in a plain wooden coffin and sent it for burial in her ancestral home near the southern city of Larkana.
Bhutto, who was married with three children, had returned to Pakistan from nearly a decade in exile on Oct. 18.
