ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Just a couple of minutes before PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday she told her political aide that she had heard that PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s rally was attacked and she wanted to telephone him right away.

However, just then the full-throated slogans of “Jeay Bhutto” by the highly charged PPP supporters outside her vehicle made her change her mind. Moved by the slogans she decided to first respond to her supporters by waving out to them from the sunroof of her bullet-proof vehicle, according to her political secretary Nahid Khan.

A mourner who had talked to Nahid Khan told Dawn that according to her when Ms Bhutto got back into her vehicle after the Liaquat Bagh rally she asked her for the mobile phone.

Ms Bhutto told her that she wanted to call Nawaz Sharif as she had just learnt that five of his supporters had been killed in an attack.

Later when Ms Bhutto suddenly fell inside the vehicle Nahid Khan did not realise what had happened and thought she had just lost balance.

“I said Bismillah when BB almost fell into my lap but then to my horror I saw blood oozing out of her head and she was almost unconscious,” Ms Khan recounted.

Apparently Benazir Bhutto had also called Nawaz Sharif a day before her assassination to discuss with him the government’s alleged plan for massive rigging in the January 8 general elections.

According to insiders, the two leaders had a long telephonic conversation and talked about evolving a joint strategy to foil the government’s rigging plan.

On December 25, Benazir Bhutto had sent flowers and a cake as a goodwill gesture to Mr Sharif as it was his birthday.