Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

A warning: this blog post is not for the faint of heart.

 

What follows is a description from Getty Images about what their photographer, John Moore, saw and photographed during the rally in which Benazir Bhutto, an opposition leader to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was assassinated earlier today. It contains graphic images from the scene, so please understand that before scrolling down further.

 

John had been covering the rally all day that Bhutto had appeared at; she had been speaking on stage in a park in Rawalpindi.

Benazir Bhutto at the rally in Rawalpindi, Dec. 27.

A number of people had mentioned to John that although the were thousands of supporters in the park, it was far from full and there was a feeling that people may have been staying away because of the events earlier in the year in Karachi. A previous attempt on Bhutto's life had been made there when she first returned from exile to her home country in October. On the day she returned, she narrowly escaped an attack when her homecoming parade in Karachi was targeted in a suicide bombing that killed more than 140 people.

The description from Getty Images of what photographer John Moore saw continues:

Today, when Bhutto finished speaking she came off the podium, got into her car, and her convoy appeared to be preparing to leave with her inside. John figured that events were over for the day and that no one would be seeing her again; he was preparing to leave himself. When he turned round he was shocked to see her standing out of the sunroof, waving to supporters as the car pushed its way slowly through the mass of people.

He ran back to grab a few frames and waited as the car came towards him, and he was pushed back in the crowd as the car came past. As this happened, he was aware of Bhutto ducking back into the car and of at least two gunshots; he picked up his camera unaware of exactly what was happening, and as he did so the bomb was detonated next to the car some 30 feet from where he was in the crowd. He kept the motor drive of his camera running as he was pushed back in the crowd, getting pictures of the blast as it went off and crowd members reeling from it.

As the crowds dispersed, he was able to shoot aftermath pictures, but was not able to get close to her car as he was kept back by the volume of people around it. The following are the sequence of photos John shot as the bomb detonated, followed by a photo of the aftermath of the explosion:

John, as might be expected, was shaken up by the bombing and the events afterwards, as the dead, injured and dying lay near the point of the blast -- shaken up, but uninjured.

For more photos and the latest on the story, please go to: Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated at Rally.

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