Pakistanis Commemorate Three Years Since the Assassinations of Former PM Benazir Bhutto
Thousands of Pakistanis gathered on Monday to commemorate three years since the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, demanding that her killers be brought to justice.
People from all over Pakistan came to the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, where her grave is, and beating their chest were chanting that Benazir Bhutto was alive yesterday and is still alive now.
Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, in a suicide attack while addressing the people in an election rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the capital of the country.
Last week, two police officers were arrested for dereliction of duty when the assassination occurred. Five Pakistani Taliban were also detained under the accusation of conspiring to kill the former PM, but, after three years of detention, they are still waiting to be indicted.
Benazir Bhutto was the wife of the current President of Pakistan, Asif Ai Zardari, who pledged allegiance to the principles of his wife, deciding to exclude Islamist groups from public life.
Islamists are blamed for the murder of 4,000 people in Pakistan since 2007.
Zardari promised to turn the nuclear-armed nation into a democracy, in keeping with his wife’s political vision, even though Pakistan 
was this year on the brink of dissolution as it had to deal with the most devastating floods in the history of the country, which left almost 20 million people homeless and large parts of the country in complete disarray.
Zardari promised that free elections will be held as soon as the current government completed its mandate.
The President, his two daughters and the current prime minister visited Benazir Bhutto’s grave on Sunday, in a private visit.
According to police, almost 100,000 people came to pay their respect at the grave of the first woman to become PM in a Muslim country.
Benazir Bhutto held the office of PM twice, between 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to 1996. On both occasions, she was removed by the president of the country on allegations of corruption.
She exiled herself to Dubai where she stayed until 2007, when she came back after reaching an agreement with former president Musharraf who promised to grant her amnesty.11
