War and Conflict Journal

Pakistan’s Violent Political History Continues
With Bhutto’s Assassination

With the political assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, Pakistan’s bloody
tradition of political violence continues to plague an already
fractured and unstable country.

A short list of significant acts of political
violence in Pakistan. Note that Pakistan has been an independent
nation only since 1947.

–1947-Independence from the British and the
violent separation from India (several million killed in Pakistan and
India)

–First Kashmir War
(1947-1948) with India

–1948–Pakistani
annexation of Baluchistan, military suppression of Baluch
nationalists.

–1951–Assassination of
Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan

–Pakistan’s first President, Iskandar Mirza,
throws out the constitution and declares martial law on October 7,
1958

–General Ayub Khan overthrows Iskander Mirza in a
bloodless coup d’etat on October 7, 1958.

–1958-1960–Pakistani military suppression of
Baluch nationalists

–Second Kashmir War (1965)
with India

–Bangladesh War of
Independence (1971) from Pakistan (Bangladesh had, from 1947 to 1971,
been part of Pakistan, best known as East Pakistan). India intervened
in the war to aid Bangladesh against Pakistan

–1973-1976-Rebellion in
Baluchistan, a province in southwestern Pakistan

–1977–Military coup
overthrows Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was replaced by
General Zia al-Huq.

–1979–Former Prime
Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed after a controversial
trial.

–Kargil
War (Kashmir Border Conflict) border
war with India

–October, 1999–General Pervez
Musharraf overthrows
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless military coup

–Waziristan
War
(2004-Present)-against tribal rebels and al-Qaida fighters in the
Northwest border region

–2003–Two unsuccessful
assassination attempts against President Pervez
Musharraf

–July, 2003–Siege and Battle at the Red Mosque–over 100 killed.

–October 18,
2007–Assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
upon her return from exile

–December 27,
2007–Assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in
Rawalpindi

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan today provoked her
supporters to riot in the streets. This political murder comes just
weeks ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for January. While
Bhutto and her party did not have a lock on winning the coming
election, she represented a valid and legitimate challenger to the
dictatorship of President Pervez
Musharraf. With her death, most likely at the hands of al-Qaida
or a related Islamist group, the chance for Pakistan to emerge from
its current dark period of dictatorship, rebellion, and political
chaos is now quite remote.

An ironic bit of trivia which shows the depth to which political
violence has impacted Pakistan’s relatively short history as an
independent country:

Benazir Bhutto’s final speech took place in a park named
   after the nation’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was
   himself assassinated at that park on October 16, 1951. In the
   northern part of the city of Rawalpindi, Benazir Bhutto’s father,
   former President and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was
   executed by hanging on April 4, 1979. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been
   overthrown in a military coup in 1977 and replaced by General
   Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Pakistan’s current dictator, Pervez
   Musharraf, survived two assassination attempts in Rawalpindi in
   2003.

Pakistan’s political system is frayed to the breaking point. What
happens after that system (in a nation with a nuclear weapons
stockpile), totally breaks down, is a scenario quite unpleasant to
imagine.

Click
here for the latest news on Bhutto’s death and the situation in
Pakistan.