Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

Benazir Bhutto, may you rest in peace.

(1953 - 2007)

Hours after I arrived in Malaysia, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

According to FoxNews, she was shot on her neck after trying to escape the bomb blast in the town of Rawalpindi. She died at 6:16 p.m. (Pakistan’s local time), at a General Hospital.

Educated at Oxford and Harvard, the US thought of her as the new hope to the road of democracy in Pakistan. Of course, now we all know that’s unlikely to happen any sooner.

Anyway, what intrigued me was the fact that the World Leaders spoke out after her death. Expressing shock, condemnation, sadness, sympathy, and all other things that needed to be said.

Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, utterly condemned the act, and said it is a severe blow to democracy in Pakistan.

Another female prominent figure in the Muslim world, Indonesia’s Megawati, voiced that she felt a sense of loss, and was truly shocked.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Singapore strongly condemns the murders.

Malaysia’s PM, Ahmad Badawi, condemned the act, and said he was “shocked”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his country was “shocked, and strongly condemns the terrorist attack.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura condemned the act as “totally unacceptable”

George Bush called the act ‘cowardly’.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called it a “heinous crime”

Pervez Musharraf immediately made the blame to Al-Qaeda. (Knowing that the people of Pakistan blamed on him.)

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukehrjee expressed “shock and horror”.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the assassination an act of “immense brutality”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Bhutto was killed by cowards afraid of democracy. (AS IF)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the assassination an “odious act”

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi condemned the “fanaticism” of the act.

Spain spoke of a “frontal attack on Pakistani democracy.”

The European Commission said the killing was “an attack against democracy and against Pakistan.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope that the culprits may soon be found.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier commented that it was an obvious attempt against democracy.

Turkey said the attack was aimed to destabilize Pakistan.

Bangladesh said it was a “barbaric act”

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan of UAE said that “UAE has been tormented by this”

Iran called to track down the terrorits. Iraq called the world to unite against the “cancer of terrorism”

The Vatican said the assassination was “terrible and tragic”.

In Latin America, Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner condemned what she called a “barbarous attack”, while President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil spoke of his “great pain and indignation”.

Those were the wise words of our Leaders.

Just a little extra information.

“Bhutto had previously accused elements in the intelligence services of trying to kill her and said she had also received death threats from Islamic militant groups including Al-Qaeda.” (Quoted from Channel News Asia)

If this was so, why were our leaders “SHOCKED?”

She was obviously the ally of the West, of course Islamic militant groups were after her life. And they were shocked by her death? Condemning the fanaticism?

I wasn’t shocked that she was killed.

ATTENTION: According to Destogate, the windows were INDEED bulletproof. Thank you for highlighting this fact.