LARKANA, Dec 27: Tens of thousands of supporters of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto gathered in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village on Saturday to pay homage on the first anniversary of her assassination.
Chants of ‘Jiye Bhutto, Sada Jiye’ and ‘Zinda Hay BB, Zinda Hay’ rent the air as swarms of people from across the country kept streaming into the Bhutto family’s three-dome white mausoleum through the day.
The mood in the Bhutto family’s ancestral village was solemn and nostalgic. People of all ages showered rose petals at the grave, raising slogans for the arrest of Ms Bhutto’s killers.
President Asif Ali Zardari, in a speech at Larkana marking the anniversary, said Pakistan would act to rein in extremist groups, but warned India not to dictate the terms of such action following the Mumbai attacks.
“We shall do it because we need it, not because you want it,” Mr Zardari said.
He said Pakistan was afflicted with the “cancer of terrorism” which should be cured through democracy, terming it a panacea.
“I know who (Benazir’s) killers are. Don’t ask me who they are, just support me,” he said.
The president urged the international community and the region not to become a victim of “non-state actors” who wanted to impose their own agenda.
“Yes, we have non-state actors. They are forcing their agenda on us. Please do not fall victim because you will be the victim, we will be the victim and the region will be the victim.”
Besides Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PPP leaders from across the country, federal and provincial ministers were present on the occasion.
Mr Zardari praised the US president-elect’s “vision of a regional cure” to the menace of terrorism.
“We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer. We have ourselves accepted we have a problem. But we will cure it. We will solve this problem and correct these things.”
President Zardari, addressing the “world’s largest and oldest democracies”, urged them to learn from Pakistan’s tribulations. “I want to talk to the world, talk to the oldest and largest democracies of the world, listen to us and learn from us.”
He went on: “We have sufferings to share with you. We have suffered these losses. We have lost our people.”
The president said the democratic process would hopefully take the country forward.
“It is a solution to the problems of the region, solution of Pakistan’s ills and the region.”
Mr Zardari said that despite having lost Benazir Bhutto at the hands of terrorists, Pakistan had never talked of seeking revenge.
“We do not talk of war. We do not talk about vengeance. We do say that we shall avenge ourselves in history.”
He said the attack on Ms Bhutto was an attack on the state and aimed at undermining efforts to build democratic structures and to fight militancy.
“The tyrants and killers have eliminated her, but they shall never be able to kill her ideas that drove and inspired a generation to lofty aims,” Mr Zardari said.
SCENE AT GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH: Security was tight at the Bhutto family’s graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, where Benazir Bhutto was buried next to her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Senior police official Tanvir Odho said 6,000 policemen and hundreds of paramilitary soldiers were on guard.
Bomb-sniffing dogs swept the place and surveillance cameras and walk-through metal detectors had been installed.
However, despite strict security checks the main events, including an expected rally, was cancelled.
Many high-profile personalities also visited the mausoleum to pay their respects to Ms Bhutto. Information Minister Sherry Rehman, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, MQM’s Babar Ghauri and several federal ministers visited Garhi Khuda Baksh.
There was a security scare in the evening which led to the arrest of three people. A volunteer of the Sindh People’ Students Federation, Imran Hussain Jatoi, told Dawn that one of those held had an empty suicide jacket; another was carrying sulphur chemical, while the third had a loaded pistol.
According to sources, President Asif Ali Zardari and his children visited the graveyard in the wee hours of the morning. The mausoleum’s staff cleared the area of Pakistan Peoples Party workers and media personnel under the pretense of cleaning the space
According to doctors, 50 people suffered injuries and 1,000 fainted after flagellation.
As the sun set on Benazir’s first death anniversary, the thousands of people who had arrived at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh began their long journey home.
AL MURTAZA: At Al-Murtaza House in Larkana, the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) held a ceremony on Saturday.
Sindh National Front chief Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, his son Amir Bakhsh Bhutto and workers of his party participated in recitations of the holy Quran.
Talking to journalists after prayers, PPP (SB) chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto said that it was strange that the PPP had yet not even registered an FIR over the assassination.
She criticised the PPP leadership for not conducting Benazir’s post-mortem. She said the country’s investigating agencies were responsible for carrying out the probe into the killing and “our own courts should convict the killers”.
Ghinwa Bhutto plans to visit Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Sunday.
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