Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto waves to
her supporters at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Dec. 27, 2007. Bhutto
died Thursday as Party security adviser says she was shot in the neck and chest
as she got into her vehicle, then gunman blew himself up. At least 20 others
were also killed in a blast that took place as Bhutto left the rally. -
Xinhua/AFP
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed yesterday,
came from a powerful political dynasty. She said after returning home from exile
in October, "we have to face the future with courage, whatever it brings."
* Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, became the country's first popularly
elected prime minister but was toppled by the military in 1977 and later hanged
for the murder of a political opponent. His supporters said the charge was
trumped up by a military dictator.
* Both of his sons died in unexplained circumstances. Shahnawaz Bhutto, the
younger son, was found dead in his flat on the French Riviera in 1985. Benazir
said her brother was poisoned. The older son, Murtaza, was killed along with six
supporters after a confrontation with police in Karachi in 1996. His family says
it was a targeted killing.
* Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's bed-ridden wife, Nusrat, and an apolitical daughter,
Sanam, are the only survivors of the family.
* Benazir Bhutto was lucky to survive when a suicide bomber killed nearly 150
people in an attack on her motorcade as she returned to the country in October
after eight years in exile.
* Later that month, she paid an emotional return to her father's grave in
their ancestral village in southern Pakistan. "There is still danger of attack,
but Allah can protect everyone and I am not scared," she said.
* In a family interview with India's Outlook magazine in Dubai last year,
Benazir said she hoped her three children would choose a different career. "My
children have told me they are very worried about my safety. I understand those
fears. But they are Bhuttos and we have to face the future with courage,
whatever it brings."
