Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated while leaving a Pakistan People's Party political rally at Liaqat National Bagh in Rawalpindi.
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto took place on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and then-leader of the opposition party Pakistan People's Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for January 2008. Shots were fired at her after a political rally at Liaqat National Bagh, and a suicide bomb was detonated immediately following the shooting. She was declared dead at 18:16 local time, at Rawalpindi General Hospital. Twenty-three other people were killed by the bombing. Bhutto had previously survived a similar attempt on her life that killed at least 180 people, after her return from exile two months earlier. Following the event, the Election Commission of Pakistan postponed the general elections by a month, which Bhutto's party won.
Pakistan People's Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is a centre-left political party in Pakistan and one of the three major Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a centre-left political position, it is currently the largest party in the federal Senate, and second-largest in the National Assembly; and is in government in Sindh and Balochistan. The party was founded in 1967 in Lahore, when a number of prominent left-wing politicians in the country joined hands against the rule of Ayub Khan, under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It is affiliated with the Socialist International. The PPP's platform is socialist, and its stated priorities continue to include transforming Pakistan into a social-democratic state, promoting egalitarian values, establishing social justice, and maintaining a strong military.