Chandigarh, December 27
Pakistan journalist and South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) Islamabad president Aroosa Alam has expressed shock at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, saying that certain people who were opposed to her coming to power are behind the assassination.

“When an attempt was made on her life at Karachi in October, the police refused to register an FIR because her complaint had names of the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Sindh along with four others. The hand of these people in her assassination cannot be ruled out”, she told The Tribune on the phone from New Delhi.

Aroosa, a senior journalist, had told media at a press conference in Chandigarh yesterday that the political situation in Pakistan was explosive and Taliban and the Muslim clergy were opposed to political reforms in Pakistan.

Giving President Parvez Musharraf and PML (Nawaz) chief Nawaz Sharif a clean chit, she said the assassination was without doubt a job of hired assassins. When it was impossible for journalists to reach Benazir, it was almost impossible for anyone else to reach her until they were provided a way. “You can obviously draw your own conjectures”.

The death of Benazir will bring the people of Pakistan on to the streets and it will become very difficult for the government to control the mobs leading to chaos in the country over the next few days. But, the positive side of the situation is that the sacrifice of Benazir will not go waste and the movement of people will ultimately lead to the elimination of terrorism from Pakistan”, said Aroosa.

Describing the assassination as a national tragedy, she said every Pakistani was sad and you could see tears in everyone’s eyes. But, at the same time, everyone is hoping that the turmoil which is bound to result from the incident helps in making the Pakistani nation emerge stronger, she added.