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/ 30 December 2007

Pakistan crisis hangs on Bhutto party

Pakistan’s political future hung in the balance on Sunday with Benazir Bhutto’s party deciding whether to pull out of planned elections amid an acrimonious dispute over how she was killed. Her husband and top party officials were also expected to name a successor to Bhutto as head of the country’s largest opposition party.

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/ 27 December 2007

Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, putting January 8 polls in doubt and sparking anger in her native Sindh province. State media and her party confirmed Bhutto’s death from a gun and bomb attack. ”She has been martyred,” said party official Rehman Malik.

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/ 10 November 2007

‘All this, for one unarmed woman’

Benazir Bhutto was going nowhere. A phalanx of riot police stood at the end of her leafy street, tapping their shields and manning a barbed-wire barricade. Armoured vehicles rolled in. Officers even prowled the neighbours’ gardens, just in case the opposition leader might vault her back wall.

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/ 9 November 2007

Bhutto under ‘virtual house arrest’

Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under virtual house arrest on Friday, a spokesperson said, to stop her from holding her first rally since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule. A senior official in Islamabad said police had cordoned off Bhutto’s home in the city but only for her protection.

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/ 14 September 2007

Bhutto to return to Pakistan in October

Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto will return from self-imposed exile on October 18, her party said on Friday, adding to the political turmoil facing President Pervez Musharraf ahead of elections. The government said it will not obstruct Bhutto’s return, but added that she must still face corruption charges.