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Mourners In Pakistan Mark 10th Anniversary Of Bhutto Assassination


Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrives to address her last public rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrives to address her last public rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

Mourners have gathered at the shrine of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to mark the 10th anniversary of her assassination.

Television images showed an estimated 20,000 people on December 27 converging in Garhi Khuda Baksh, the site of the family's mausoleum in Sindh Province.

Bhutto, the first woman to lead a Muslim country and an ally of the West, was killed in a gun and suicide-bomb attack on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi, the headquarters city of Pakistan's military. No one has been convicted for the killing.

Bhutto, who ruled from 1988-90 and 1993-96, was campaigning for a return to office when she was assassinated.

Unanswered questions surrounding the assassination remain, leading to a multitude of conspiracy theories.

In August, an antiterrorism court in Pakistan declared former president and military ruler Pervez Musharraf a fugitive in connection with the killing as part of a broad conspiracy to have Bhutto, his political rival, killed before elections.

He has denied the allegation.

Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999. He resigned in 2008 to avoid possible impeachment and went into exile overseas.

"There are theories only, and even after 10 years we don't know who was behind the murder," Muqtida Mansoor, a political analyst, told the AFP news agency.

The United Nations in a 2010 report held Musharraf's administration responsible for failing to provide Bhutto with the necessary security, saying her assassination was preventable.

Based on reporting by AFP, PakTribune, and Daily Pakistan

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