BB [Benazir Bhutto] Murder: Court Directs FIA [Federal Investigation Agency] to Contact Interpol for Musharraf's Arrest
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE: A Special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to contact Interpol for the arrest of former president Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

The case hearing has been adjourned until the end of April. » | Saturday, March 26, 2011

Arrest Warrant for Pervez Musharraf Issued by Pakistani Court
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A court in Pakistan has issued an arrest warrant for Pervez Musharraf, the former military ruler, in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Prosecutors claim he was aware that Taliban extremists planned to kill the former prime minister but that he failed to stop her murder in Rawalpindi.

The warrant could end his plans to return to Pakistan to contest elections.

Mr Musharraf has lived in London ever since being forced from power in 2008, months after Mrs Bhutto was killed in a bomb and gun attack as she left an election rally.

On Saturday, his spokesman said he had no intention of returning to face court and that the warrant was politically motivated.

"How can the president of a country be made responsible for the non-provision of security? It's totally ridiculous, you cannot pin criminal responsibility on a president for that," said Fawad Chaudhry. >>> Rob Crilly in Islamabad | Saturday, February 12, 2011

SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Haftbefehl gegen Pakistans Ex-Präsident Musharraf erlassen: Drei Jahre nach dem tödlichen Anschlag auf die frühere pakistanische Regierungschefin Benazir Bhutto ist gegen den damaligen Präsidenten Pervez Musharraf wegen mutmasslicher Verstrickung in den Fall Haftbefehl erlassen worden. >>> sda/godc | Samstag, 12. Februar 2011

Dr Isaac Kfir: Great Triumph for Radicals
YNET NEWS – OPINION: Expert says Bhutto assassination to gravely undermine Pakistan democracy hopes

“Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is an earthquake in Pakistan,” says Dr. Isaac Kfir, an international relations lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a Pakistan expert. Kfir believes that the terror attack that killed the opposition leader constitutes a grave blow to democratic aspirations in the Islamic state. “Her death will cause a huge shock in the country and lead to the opposition party’s collapse. This is an immense achievement for radical Islam,” he says.

Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, was murdered Thursday in a shooting attack carried out by a suicide bomber. Dr. Kfir says that the opposition leader’s death will gravely undermine her party’s future. “Her death will neutralize the opposition party because there is no suitable candidate that could take her place,” he says. “This could lead to a party split and a leadership struggle.”

In addition, Kfir says that the murder significantly boosts the power of Islamists in Pakistan under the leadership of al-Qaeda activists. “The Bhutto assassination proves that radical Islam has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan and is moving from rural areas into the large cities. The Taliban may grow stronger and so would al-Qaeda – one of its leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for Bhutto’s murder and viewed her as a US and Western puppet,” Kfir notes. Great triumph for radicals >>> By Roee Mandel

YNET NEWS OPINION:
World peace at stake: Bhutto assassination could have far-reaching implications for global security By Ronen Bergman

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Bhutto’s Death May Bring Musharraf Down
THE TELEGRAPH: As in Yeats's Easter 1916, death changes our view of certain people utterly. It's a tricky thing to broach the martyrdom and apotheosis of someone you didn't like and have publicly criticised.

The news reports after Benazir Bhutto's death repeatedly featured footage of her uttering the fateful words, "Don't worry, God willing, I will be safe. I will be safe."

I'd seen that same interview earlier and at the time I commented scornfully on the platitudes carefully chosen to appeal to her Western audience, the peculiar nasal delivery, the disingenuousness.

What I saw after her murder was only vulnerability, the uncertain smile that followed the words, and her bravery. And it made me profoundly sad.

Who can doubt that Benazir was physically brave? With an executed father and two murdered brothers, no one could have been more aware of the risks of entering Pakistani politics. But she refused to be intimidated by threats from local opponents and extremists who viewed her as an American stooge.

She continued campaigning even after the attempt on her life the day she returned to Pakistan on October 18, which left up to 140 people dead. In the end she was killed just two miles from the spot where her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged 28 years earlier. As prime minister, Benazir Bhutto did little >>> Says Jemima Khan

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Gabor Steingart’s View on “West’s Year of Failure”
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps.

The following sentence is the most bitter compliment imaginable: The Thursday assassination (more...) of Benazir Bhutto is a huge, shocking and possibly even historic triumph for the enemies of democracy. Even worse, the attack was the gruesome culmination of what has been a successful year for them.

It is also not reaching too far to say that the shots that fatally wounded Bhutto in Rawalpindi Thursday also killed off any hope that the Islamic world could find peace of its own accord in the foreseeable future.

The West, too, is more troubled than it has been for a long time. The dismay in the corridors of government is genuine. US President George W. Bush's statement, which lasted little more than a minute, was eloquent testimony to his speechlessness. This world power has rarely looked so powerless -- and Bush has rarely looked so helpless.

Three Lessons to Be Learned

Now, as always when something goes wrong in the world, America is falling back on the rhetoric of violence. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been saying for some time that Pakistan is the war we must win. The "war on terror" metaphor has long been one of Bush's favorites.

But the failures of 2007 require rethinking. There are three lessons to be learned from the strategy followed by the US to this point.

Lesson one: The conflict with radical Islam is not the hobby of a US president gone berserk. This will become all the more clear next November when American voters go to the polls. Bush, who cannot run for re-election due to term limitations, will go, but the conflict with Islam will remain. In fact, it is growing more intense. That, at least, is what the murder of this exceptionally brave woman in Pakistan has given to the West: a high degree of clarity. The radical Islamists will not tolerate any democrats, even if they come from their own countries. They are looking for a showdown, apparently at any price. They will even accept the failure of a country as big and proud as Pakistan.

Lesson two: Bush will not be in a position to do much to end this conflict. He is a war president and an unsuccessful one at that. Even if he talks about diplomacy, it sounds like preparation for war. His partners in Berlin, Paris and London will have to act cleverly in this difficult situation. Any belligerence or crowing must be avoided so as to not damage the Western position as a whole. As strange as it might sound, this beleaguered president must be ushered into retirement with dignity and civility.

Lesson three: The classic military intervention -- Bush's formula against the danger of terrorism -- has not been successful up to now and will not be so in the future. And the situation in nuclear-armed Pakistan is clearly not one where any sort of military operation should be considered. Bhutto Killing Caps West's Year of Failure >>> By Gabor Steingart in Washington

Spiegel Photo Gallery: Benazir Bhutto’s Remarkable Career

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Benazir Bhutto: The Woman Who Knew Too Much

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Jihadists and This Disaster for Us All
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)

Meinungen rund um Europa übers Attentat Benazir Bhuttos
DIE PRESSE: “Pakistans verlorene Führerin”
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Al-Qaeda Claims responsibility for Bhutto’s Assassination
"This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against Al Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen," - Mustafa told Asia Times Online by telephone.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:
Pakistan Mourns Bhutto, as Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility: Slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto laid to rest amid supporters' protests and security officials search for her killer By Simon Montlake

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Violence Across Pakistan in Wake of Bhutto’s Assassination

THE TELEGRAPH: Pakistani security forces were given orders to shoot on sight today to curb unrest as millions across the country mourned Benazir Bhutto.

The former prime minister and leading opposition figure was laid to rest in her family's mausoleum a day after her assassination by Islamic extremists.

Her simple coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was greeted by huge crowds at her ancestral grave in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the southern province of Sind.

Accompanied by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and three children, her body was carried in a white ambulance as it made its way towards the white Mogulesque mausoleum surrounded by hundreds of thousands of mourners. Violence as millions mourn Benazir Bhutto >>> By Isambard Wilkinson, Pakistan Correspondent

The West’s greatest test since September 11 By David Blair

Pakistan faces horror of civil war after Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in suicide attack By Isambard Wilkinson, Pakistan Correspondent, Richard Edwards and David Blair

Bhutto's death is victory for Islamic hardliners By Con Coughlin

Why the fanatics wanted Benazir Bhutto dead By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent

NZZ:
Mächtiger Trauerzug begleitet Bhuttos Sarg zum Grab: In Familienmausoleum beigesetzt

WELTONLINE:
Atomwaffen und Islamisten sind sich nah wie nie

LE MONDE:
Benazir Bhutto a été inhumée devant des centaines de milliers de Pakistanais

Edito du "MONDE":
Le Pakistan en danger

Un attentat que "la Sultane" redoutait : "J'en rendrai Musharraf responsable", confiait-elle

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto
Photo of Benazir Bhutto courtesy of Google Images
BBC: Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it - he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack.

Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths.

Like the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhuttos of Pakistan are one of the world's most famous political dynasties. Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970s.

His government was one of the few in the 30 years following independence that was not run by the army.

Born in 1953 in the province of Sindh and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Ms Bhutto gained credibility from her father's high profile, even though she was a reluctant convert to politics.

She was twice prime minister of Pakistan, from 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to 1996. Obituary: Benazir Bhutto >>>

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Matt Frei interviewed Benazir Bhutto

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

BBC: Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack.

News of her death was confirmed by a military spokesman and members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Ms Bhutto had just addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi when gunfire and an explosion occurred.

At least 15 other people are reported killed in the attack and several more were injured. Ms Bhutto had twice been the country's prime minister.

She had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January. Benazir Bhutto killed in attack >>>

WATCH BBC VIDEOS:
Bhutto killed in Pakistan blast

Scenes of chaos and panic at the scene of the assassination

THE TELEGRAPH:
Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

SPIEGELONLINE:
Benazir Bhutto ermordert – Pakistan unter Schock Von Hasnain Kazim

Geliebt, bewundert – verhasst Von Hasnain Kazim und Björn Hengst

NZZ:
Tod von Bhutto stellt Wahl in Pakistan in Frage

LE FIGARO:
Violences au Pakistan après l'assassinat de Benazir Bhutto

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Gemeinsam gegen Musharraf
NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: In Pakistan haben sich die früher rivalisierenden Oppositionsführer Benazir Bhutto und Nawaz Sharif auf ein Bündnis gegen den amtierenden Präsident Musharraf geeinigt. Dieser bemühte sich unterdessen um die Bildung einer Übergangsregierung, die bis zur geplanten Parlamentswahl am 9. Januar im Amt bleiben soll.

(sda/afp) Die beiden ehemaligen Regierungschefs hätten in einem Telefonat am Mittwoch vereinbart, ihre Differenzen zu vergessen, um einen «gemeinsamen Kampf» für einen Rücktritt Musharrafs zu führen, sagte der Chef von Sharifs Muslim-Liga (Nawaz), Raja Zafar-ul Haq, am Donnerstag der Nachrichtenagentur AFP.

Bhutto habe zugesichert, den Kampf im Land fortzusetzen, bis Musharraf sowohl die Armeeführung als auch das Präsidentenamt aufgebe. Sharif lebt derzeit in Saudiarabien im Exil. Gemeinsam gegen Musharraf: Pakistanische Oppositionspolitiker Bhutto und Sharif schliessen Bündnis (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Benazir Calls on Musharraf to Quit: “He’s Out of His Depth,” She Says
BBC: Pakistan's detained opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has called for President Pervez Musharraf to step down.

Ms Bhutto made the call after police mounted a massive security operation to prevent a protest march in Lahore, where she is under house arrest.

It is the first time Ms Bhutto has urged Gen Musharraf to quit altogether. Bhutto calls on Musharraf to quit (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Bhutto under house arrest

Mark Alexander

Imran Khan on Benazir Bhutto
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: I'm sorry to say this, but the bombing of Benazir Bhutto's cavalcade as she paraded through Karachi on Thursday night was a tragedy almost waiting to happen. You could argue it was inevitable.

Everyone here knew there was going to be a huge crowd turning up to see her return after eight years in self-imposed exile.

Everyone also knows that there has been a spate of suicide bombings in Pakistan lately, especially in the frontier region where I am campaigning at the moment.

How was it ever going to be possible to monitor such a large crowd and guarantee that no suicide bombers would infiltrate it?

This may sound equally harsh, but she has only herself to blame. By making a deal with Musharraf's government — a deal brokered by the British as well as the Americans, by the way — she was hoping to get herself off the corruption charges that have been levelled against her.

What she hadn't taken into account was Musharraf's unpopularity. He is regarded in Pakistan as an American stooge. And the US war on terror, which he supports, is now perceived as a war against Islam. Benazir Bhutto has only herself to blame (more) By Imran Khan

THE SUNDAY TIMES:
Bhutto’s return became a bloodbath

THE SUNDAY TIMES:
Returning exile Benazir Bhutto has a long list of enemies who want to see her dead

Mark Alexander

Suicide Bomb Attack on Benazir Bhutto Less Than 24 Hours After She Returned to Pakistan from Self-Imposed Exile
FINANCIAL TIMES: The Pakistan government blamed Islamist militants for twin explosions that killed more than 130 supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto during her homecoming parade in the early hours of Friday morning.

The attack underscored the turbulence which lay in store for Pakistan ahead of an election due by January, but it was unclear how the assassination attempt might affect a possible power-sharing deal between Ms Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf.

No-one claimed responsibility, but Ms Bhutto’s husband held Pakistan’s intelligence agency to blame, while police were investigating whether the attack was connected to al-Qaeda linked militants in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Militants linked to al-Qaeda, angered by the former prime minister’s support for the US war on terrorism, had this week threatened to assassinate her, and officials said there were intelligence reports of plots by three separate groups.

”Definitely, it is the work of the militants and terrorists,” said Javed Iqbal Cheema, interior ministry spokesman, adding it was too early to say which group was involved. Pakistan blames Islamist militants for bombs (more) By Jo Johnson and Farhan Bokhari in Karachi and Reuters

Mark Alexander

Benazir Bhutto Returns to Pakistan After Eight Years in Exile
Photo of Benazir Bhutto courtesy of the New York Times
NEW YORK TIMES: KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 18 — Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister, arrived in Pakistan this afternoon, ending her eight-year exile in a return that is expected to reconfigure the country’s already unsettled political landscape.

She stepped down onto the tarmac at Karachi airport at around 2 p.m. local time after a flight from Dubai, wearing a green shalwar kameez — a traditional Muslim outfit — and white headscarf, the colors of the Pakistani flag.
“The most important step — to be back on Pakistani soil,” Ms. Bhutto said, after praying before an upheld Koran. She was clearly tearful.

Later, she began what was expected to be a long procession through the heavy throng of crowds to the tomb of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, in Karachi. She left the airport standing on the upper deck of a sided truck, surrounded by party members and waving at the people in the streets. Students wearing Pakistan Peoples’ Party shirts held hands and formed five concentric rings around the truck to keep back the crush. As the procession inched forward, people stood with flags and banners on the tops of trucks and sat in nearby trees. Bhutto Returns to Pakistan After 8-Year Exile (more) By Carlotta Gall and Salman Masood

Mark Alexander