RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s assassination yesterday plunged the nuclear-armed country into an epic crisis that raised fear of an all-out civil war.
Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence, especially in her native Sindh province.
In Karachi, the notoriously violent capital of Sindh province, thousands poured into the streets to protest.
“There is trouble almost everywhere,” a police official said.
Violence eased toward midnight, but not until scores of vehicles and several buildings had been set ablaze.
More than 100 cars were torched in Karachi, the BBC reported. There were also reports of a train set afire in Hyderabad. At least five people were killed in Karachi, including a police officer. Shots were fired and government offices set ablaze.
One man died in a shootout between police and protesters in Tando Allahyar, a town 120 miles north of Karachi, while two were killed in Sindh province and another two in Lahore.
Shortly after word of Bhutto’s death became public, her angry supporters went after cops and government buildings in mob-mentality assaults.
At the Rawalpindi hospital where Bhutto was pronounced dead, glass was broken, while her supporters denounced President Pervez Musharraf as complicit in her assassination.
“Killer, killer, Musharraf!” some chanted.
In Peshawar, police tossed tear gas at a rally of protesters calling out chants against Musharraf, local reports said.
An embattled Musharraf put paramilitary forces on alert around Pakistan, under orders to stamp out violence as it arose.
He announced a three-day period of mourning in which the central bank and all schools will be closed. Musharraf urged calm from an angry nation.
“This cruelty is the work of those terrorists with whom we are fighting,” Musharraf said. “I seek unity and support from the nation . . . We will not sit and rest until we get rid of these terrorists, root them out.”
He did not mention the upcoming elections, which Bhutto’s former political rival, ex-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, vowed to have his party boycott.
“Free elections are not possible in the presence of Musharraf,” he said. “Musharraf is the root cause of all problems.”
It was unclear whether it would be possible to hold the elections next week as planned, given the state of turmoil.
And the question remained whether Musharraf would need to reimpose the emergency rule that he only recently lifted.
US hope for a democratic Pakistan was clearly in jeopardy, and the potential for the nation to be ripped apart by political strife was quite real.
President Bush urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto “by continuing with the democratic process for which she . . . gave her life.”
Other US officials said Washington hoped Musharraf would stick to plans to hold the elections, slated for Jan. 8.
Anthony Cordesman, security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Bhutto’s death makes a very unstable situation worse.
“There’s no figure [whom] we can work with who has the same immediate ability to try to create political stability and a climate in which you can have legitimate elections, bring back the rule of law, and bridge the gap that had developed between Musharraf and the Pakistani people,” he said. Post Wire Services