DAILY MAIL: Last August, two months before her return to Pakistan from exile, Benazir Bhutto explained the essence of Pakistani politics.
"There are two fault lines," she said. "One is dictatorship versus democracy. The other is moderation versus extremism."
These fault lines converged lethally on her on Thursday when she was murdered by Islamic extremists while campaigning to restore democracy to her country.
Her death will plunge her already troubled country into a prolonged period of murderous chaos from which only Islamist fanatics can gain.
It is unlikely that Al Qaeda and their Islamist supporters would ever assume total control of a nuclear-armed Pakistan - the ruling generals will not willingly give up their weapons. But in the maelstrom that follows Bhutto's assassination the Islamists will be free to flourish in vast tracts of the country.
Huge areas will become a giant training camp for the sort of Anglo-Pakistani jihadists who struck in London in July 2005.
Entire regions in the north west are already violent badlands occupied by extremists, which the government can only enter with thousands of soldiers - and these badlands are now likely to expand massively. Jihadists and this disaster for us all >>> By Michael Burleigh
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
