A great Star in Muslim World Perished

Bhutto Dies in Bomb Attack

New Roman">Benazir Bhutto, the first elected female leader of a Muslim state, was on Thursday killed in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. The death of Ms Bhutto, 54, who had served as Pakistan's prime minister from 1988-90 and again from 1993-96, raised the spectre of instability and violence in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation.

Ms Bhutto – who returned to Pakistan in October after eight years of exile – had hoped to stage another political comeback in the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8. The leader of the Pakistan People's party, the former prime minister had recently been negotiating the terms of a power-sharing agreement with President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Musharraf, a political rival of Ms Bhutto's who overthrew then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999, quickly condemned the attack. “This cruelty is the work of those terrorists with whom we are fighting,” Mr Musharraf said in a brief televised address.

“The biggest threat to Pakistan and this nation is from these terrorists. I seek unity and support from the nation . . . we will not sit and rest until we get rid of these terrorists, root them out.”

Mr Sharif, another former prime minister hoping to stage a return to power after a lengthy exile – and another rival of Ms Bhutto's – called the assassination a “tragedy” and appeared to blame Mr Musharraf for the security lapse. “Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death,” Mr Sharif said.

The shock of the assassination reverberated strongly elsewhere in the region. Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, who had met Ms Bhutto hours before her assassination, condemned her killing. “I met with her this morning [and] I found her to be a very, very brave woman, with a clear vision for her own country, for Afghanistan, and for the region, the vision of democracy and prosperity and peace,” Mr Karzai said. “I am deeply sorry, deeply pained, this brave sister of ours, brave daughter of the Muslim world is no longer with us.”

“The subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country,” said Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India, Pakistan's neighbour and nuclear rival. India also issued a nationwide alert to all of the country's states to remain vigilant following the assassination.

Leaders around the world echoed Mr Karzai and Mr Singh. Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, called the day's events “a tragic hour for Pakistan” and referred to Ms Bhutto's attackers as “cowards”.

In Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush said the US strongly condemned “this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistani democracy”.