Upon Ms Bhutto?s return to Pakistan on 18th October 2007, she was greeted with a ?failed? assassination attempt while being heavily guarded by Musharraf?s secret services. Ms Bhutto asserted that the attempt against her life was orchestrated by ?certain individuals who abuse their positions? that she even sent a letter to Musharraf giving the names of people in the ?government and Pakistan security forces? who had been conspiring against her. And, earlier, she had even told French magazine Paris Match: ?I know exactly who wants to kill me. Dignitaries of the former regime of General Zia who are today behind the extremism and the fanaticism.?

People would recall that Zia ul-Haq was a ruthless dictator with whom the US forged a strategic alliance, together with the mujahidin (freedom fighters), who were none other than Osama Bin Laden, to defeat the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. The US also green-lighted Zia ul-Haq?s hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Father of Benazir Bhutto. When Zia ul-Haq was of no use to the Americans as he enforced strict Islamic law within Pakistan, he was also assassinated in a planned aircraft crash on 17th August 1988.

<B>State of emergency</B>

Ahead of an expected ruling declaring unlawful Musharraf?s eligibility to run for President while still in uniform, Musharraf sacked the Pakistani Supreme Court Judges, banned political rallies and declared a State of emergency while Ms Bhutto had briefly gone to Dubai. Upon her re-return to Pakistan, Bhutto refused any contact with Dictator Musharraf and demanded that he step down altogether and started to forge alliances with other political parties, including Nawaz Sharif?s party. This went against what Musharraf had expected from Ms Bhutto and he placed her under house arrest ?for her own safety,? he argued. Other political leaders, including cricketer Imran Khan and opposition activists, were also arrested. Analysts affirm that, from that time onwards, Benazir Bhutto?s life was in grave danger as soon as she would start addressing the people as the dictatorship had already prepared the ground by justifying her house arrest ?for her own safety?, hence attempting to shift the blame onto others.

<B>The assassination</B>

If Musharraf?s dictatorship knew Benazir Bhutto?s life was in danger, enough to justify her house imprisonment, one would have thought that they would have found it far easier and be better prepared to protect her life. But this was not to be the case. On 27th December 2007, after addressing the people at her first election campaign rally in garrison city Rawalpindi since returning from exile two months ago, Benazir Bhutto was shot twice by a trained marksman, in the neck and in the chest.

Whilst one official who asked not to be named said: ?The attacker fired and then blew himself up,? Sardar Qamar Hayyat, an eye witness, said he was standing about 10 yards away from the vehicle from whose roof Benazir Bhutto emerged to wave to her supporters when he ?saw a thin, young man jumping towards her vehicle from the back and opening fire?. Hayyat did not mention that the marksman blew himself up. Bhutto was rushed to hospital. She died about an hour after the attack. Former PM Nawaz Sharif was at her bedside and he later told both her and his supporters that Bhutto was his sister and that her assassination would be avenged against the rulers.

Although no one claimed responsibility for Bhutto?s assassination, only the so-called ?Islamic militants? are said to be the suspects, and not Musharraf?s dictatorship in which Ms Bhutto had already identified her would-be assassins and which, more than anyone else, knew of the danger she faced but was ?powerless? to protect her.

Benazir Bhutto?s supporters had no hesitation in holding Dictator Musharraf responsible for her assassination and accused him of complicity in the killing. They shouted slogans including ?Musharraf is a dog? and ?Long live Bhutto?. Although Benazir Bhutto had said she was prepared to die for democracy, she wasted her life for a fascist democracy imported from European invaders who supported the dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf under which she was assassinated. Pakistanis must unite and look for a pro-Pakistan leader and rid the country of all foreign intervention. Pakistani people are bound to ask how many secret agents from ISI, Mossad, CIA and MI6 were amongst the crowd when the trained marksman shot Benazir Bhutto.