UNITED NATIONS — World leaders expressed outrage Thursday over the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and concern about the stability of the nation as it struggles to uphold democracy and hold off terrorism.
President Bush urged Pakistanis to proceed with national parliamentary elections planned for Jan. 8 to honor Bhutto’s push for democracy.
“The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy,” Bush said at his ranch in Texas.
In India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was “shocked and horrified to hear of the heinous assassination,” and he called Bhutto, who had tried to improve relations between the countries, “irreplaceable.”
“In her death, the subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country,” Singh said.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s other close neighbor, had met with Bhutto in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Thursday before she was killed. Both countries are struggling with extremists.
Karzai said he was pained by the murder of “this brave sister of ours, a brave daughter of the Muslim world.
“She sacrificed her life for the sake of Pakistan and for the sake of this region,” he said.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council convened in an emergency session to condemn the assassination. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the attack “an assault on stability in Pakistan and its democratic processes.”
