Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bomb attack. The leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had just addressed a rally of PPP supporters in the town of Rawalpindi when the attack took place. First reports talked of at least 100 killed in the attack, but more recent news put the figure at 20. This murderous onslaught on the PPP came in the middle of an election campaign where, after years of military dictatorship, the masses were striving for a change.

Today’s cold-blooded assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi has once again thrown Pakistan into political turmoil, less than two weeks before national elections. Thirty more people have died and 40 injured in the bomb blast after the assassin blew himself up. Millions of supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party are in a state of shock, disbelief and grief. But they are also angered by this murderous act by the forces of black counter-revolution.

On the evening
of December 18 two comrades putting up posters and canvassing in Karachi were threatened by
10 armed activists of the MQM organization. They attempted to abduct one of the
comrades but failed to do so thanks to the intervention of local people. All
comrades must be put on alert for any immediate mobilization of support that
may be requested.