New Delhi, December 27
India is deeply worried over growing destabilisation of Pakistan and its worst fear is that former premier Benazir Bhutto’s “chokepoint method” assassination may well be the beginning of a new and more dangerous cycle of terror in that country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, currently in Goa, is likely to convene a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) here tomorrow. His government immediately ordered a threat assessment of the Bhutto assassination fallout. The central agencies have been told to prepare India-specific threat assessment reports in case more political leaders of Pakistan (like President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) were to be eliminated by the terrorists.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee promptly came out with a statement mourning Bhutto’s death. He said: “I heard with shock and horror of the death of Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was a brave and outstanding woman leader of the sub-continent. That she should fall to a barbarous terrorist attack is particularly tragic, and should strengthen our resolve to fight this scourge. Bhutto’s contributions to democracy, to the improvement in India-Pakistan relations, and to the restoration of normalcy within Pakistan will be an inspiration. My heart-felt condolences go to her immediate family, members of her party and the people of Pakistan. Our hopes and prayers are with them in this hour of loss.”

It is the methodology of Bhutto’s assassination that has caused ripples in the higher echelons of the Indian strategic establishment - a point which confirms the involvement of Islamist terror outfits that have come of age. Bhutto’s assassination is in many ways similar to the 1995 killing of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who too was shot after a political rally on way out to his car.

Bhutto’s assassins used a method to kill her that is not very commonly used: She was killed by a sniper bullet at the “chokepoint” just when she was about to get inside her car. Her proximate security personnel had apparently not secured the entire route from the dais to the vehicle. When Bhutto had just reached her vehicle, she had reached her “chokepoint”. In this position, the victim is generally alone, in a standing position and a visible target. Had Bhutto been able to get inside her vehicle, she might have survived the strike.

Incidentally, the Indian security agencies are not going to shed many tears on Bhutto’s death. She was and is still known in these circles as the “Mother of Taliban”. Taliban was created during her regime and her Interior Minister was the in charge of the Taliban’s day-to-day progress. Moreover, militancy in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, reached its crescendo during her two tenures as Pakistan’s Prime Minister (1988-90 and 1993-96).