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Benazir Bhutto was twice elected Prime Minister and twice deposed. She lived much of her adult life in exile in London and Dubai. |
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Facing pressure from the United States, President Pervez Musharraf allowed Benazir to return from exile in 2007. On October 18, she arrived in Karachi at tremendous personal risk. That evening, her convoy was attacked with car-bombs. Over 100 people died but Bhutto escaped unharmed.
Using the bombing as partial justification (the Supreme Court was about to announce a ruling on the legality of Musharraf's dual role as head of state and army commander), Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule on November 3. Bhutto was put under house arrest twice before martial law was lifted on December 15.
On December 27, Benazir attended a rally in Rawalpindi (a garrison city outside the capital, Islamabad). Her car was attacked and she was killed. Lashkar i Jhangvi, an AI-Qaeda linked organization, would later claim responsibility for her assassination.
Her official cause of death was ruled as resulting from head wounds sustained while avoiding gunfire. A car-bomb was detonated almost instantaneously with the gunfire. However, no autopsy was performed and she was buried the next day in the mausoleum she had built for her father in the south.
Her assassination might seem to help and/or harm disparate interests. Perhaps she will prove more powerful in death than in life.
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