Pakistan's Bhutto slain by suicide attacker

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, slain in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on Thursday, knew very well the risks she ran when she decided to wage a public campaign for the restoration of democracy.

Hours after she returned home in October after eight years of self-imposed exile, a suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack targeting her motorcade in the streets of Karachi.

The attack followed threats by militants linked to al Qaeda, angered by Bhutto's support for Washington's war on terrorism.

"They might try to assassinate me," Bhutto had told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview before she set out to return to Pakistan. "I have prepared my family and my loved ones for any possibility."

Despite being in the wilderness for most of the past decade, the tall, stately Bhutto remained one of the most recognizable female politicians in the world.

In 1986, a vast sea of supporters had welcomed her home as she came back to challenge a military dictator who had executed her father, deposed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, seven years earlier.

Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.

She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.

After more years spent abroad, Bhutto, 54, flew back again in October to lead her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) into national elections. This time, though, rather than confronting a military ruler, she was hoping to work with army chief and president Pervez Musharraf for a peaceful transition to civilian rule.

Western allies saw their cooperation as the best way to sustain the nuclear-armed country's efforts against terrorism.

But after Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in early November, Bhutto angrily protested and redoubled her calls for the president to quit the army and hold free elections.

ARM'S LENGTH

Even when, under worldwide pressure, Musharraf resigned from the military in late November, Bhutto and rival party politician Nawaz Sharif continued to keep him at arm's length, warning of attempts to rig the coming polls.

Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.

Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she said al Qaeda assassins had tried to kill her several times in the 1990s. Intelligence reports have said al Qaeda, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her.