by Raya Chowdhury

Created on: February 11, 2008

Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Pakistan and the symbol of modern Islamic women, was assassinated on December 27, 2007. Like father, like daughter.

Controversies surround the sudden, shocking demise of the woman who was advocating democracy in Pakistan. She was seen as someone who can bring hope to war-ravaged, military-based Pakistan, someone that the West was starting to count on. The harbinger of blessings, she was supposed to be. Instead, she is no more, leaving Pakistan as ravaged and insecure as ever; illustrating the presence of terrorists and terrorist groups in the country that President Bush calls an ally.

Who could have been behind this cruel hand that snatched Pakistan's daughter away from her? While mystery shrouds the motives behind it, conspiracy theories are innumerous.

Some claim that it was Benazir's own people who killed her; a traitor who thought it best for the 'party', Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Someone who did not quite approve of her speeches in English, her Western ways; someone who thought that a woman leader is not good enough for PPP.

Then there's the obvious claim. That President Musharraf was behind the assassination. He wanted her out, simply because he did not want to relinquish power to someone else. Supporters of this claim insist that despite Benazir's request for more security, she wasn't granted protection by the government, the government headed by Musharraf.

Funnier still is that the bullet that was shot at her isn't what killed her, we hear. It was the impact of the suicide bombing that killed her; not the bullets. This technicality is being used to propagate that it wasn't an assassination, but an accident. Funny concepts of South Asians, I put it down to. Whatever happened to calling a spade a spade? Sorry, that doesn't happen in that part of the world.

What does it all mean for Pakistan? Not a whole lot, I imagine, simply because they're pretty much back to where they were when Benazir was in exile. Many had apparently warned Benazir about returning to Pakistan. Apparently, she herself was worried for her life. Yet, she made that trip to Pakistan, she reached out to the people of Pakistan. She wanted to make a difference. For that, Benazir has paid with her life. That difference that she was trying to make will never be made anymore. There will be no other Benazir. Not in Pakistan. Not anywhere else.

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