# 1412
A very sad day for Pakistan, and the world. Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today.
Already, just hours after this brutal attack, there is talk of civil war in Pakistan as protestors take to the streets.
The political and social ramifications of this assassination aside, Pakistan is a hot zone for H5N1, with a recent cluster of 8 or more people. The last thing this region needs is more turmoil and conflict.
This despicable act is both a blow to democracy and the fight against avian flu in that region.
Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack
By SADAQAT JAN and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writers
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally, aides said.
"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.
A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. A gunman then blew himself up.
"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.
Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.
