The AP reports that Benazir Bhutto was killed after a shooting followed by a suicide bombing at a political rally where she was speaking. Much more from Michelle Malkin. Max Boot comments here. More updates from JWF and Gateway Pundit. Pajamas Media has a large roundup.
Bhutto was Harvard-educated, the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, twice becoming Pakistan's prime minister. She arrived in office in free elections in 1988 but removed on corruption charges. She was again elected in 1993, but removed on similar charges. She went into self-imposed exile to Dubai in 1998, where she stayed until her return to Pakistan in October 2007, where she was greeted by two jihadi bombs that killed more than 100 people but narrowly missed her. She was prepared to be killed in the process of seeking democratic leadership of Pakistan. She pledged a tough crackdown on Islamist militants, and those pledges cost her her life. Let us hope she's the last martyr for Islamic democracy.
UPDATE: After reading and learning more about Bhutto, I may have to revise my original position praising her as a martyr for liberal democracy. She may have been tough on Islamic militants, but her committment to liberal ideals seems to fall short. She may have been the least bad option, but now that she's gone, we're left with the even less appetizing choices of Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif. She might have been "modern, liberal, and unafraid," as David Igantius described her, but as Ralph Peters points out, she may have cared more about power than democracy.
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