Assassination of Benazir Bhutto — attack on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
The assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto during the 2008 election campaign destabilized Pakistani politics and prompted international scrutiny of security failures.
Key Facts
- Date of assassination
- 27 December 2007
- Location
- Liaqat National Bagh, Rawalpindi
- Other people killed
- 23 people
- Time of death declared
- 18:16 local time (13:16 UTC)
- Previous attack survivors
- 2007 Karsaz bombing killed at least 180 people
- UN finding
- Assassination could have been prevented with adequate security
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Benazir Bhutto had returned from exile two months prior and was actively campaigning for the January 2008 general elections as leader of the Pakistan People's Party. She had already survived a deadly suicide attack in Karachi in October 2007, and had sought additional private security protection in May 2007, citing credible threats to her life.
On 27 December 2007, following a political rally at Liaqat National Bagh in Rawalpindi, gunshots were fired at Bhutto and a suicide bomb was immediately detonated. She was taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital and declared dead at 18:16 local time. Twenty-three bystanders were also killed in the bombing. The cause of her death was disputed, with officials and her aides offering conflicting accounts.
Following the assassination, the Election Commission of Pakistan postponed the scheduled January 2008 general elections by one month. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party subsequently won those elections. A United Nations investigation concluded that adequate security measures could have prevented her death, and controversy over the Pakistani government's initial account of the cause of death persisted.