The mark of the bullet

A decade after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi, there has been a flood of new speculation about who killed her, with what motive and how. There has been no progress in the patchy investigation into the case since 2007, with the Anti Terrorism Court heading the case ruling in August last year that former dictator General Pervez Musharraf be declared an absconder in the case, two senior police officials arrested and five men allegedly linked to the Taliban freed. The problem, of course, is that this leaves us not even close to understanding where the conspiracy to kill Benazir was laid out and which forces stood behind it.

There is so much that has gone without question. The stories and columns now coming forward make it clearer than ever before that Benazir Bhutto herself understood that she was destined to be killed weeks before the bullet that took her life was pumped into her head. This in itself is extremely significant. Benazir’s letter to a US journalist, her comments to journalists at home and to others – in which she even pointed to her killers – have been repeatedly overlooked. Essentially, she suggested Pervez Musharraf was seeking her life: perhaps by refusing to grant her the security she needed, perhaps through other acts. Because of the lapses in investigation, we are still not clear; most likely we will never be.

There are also increasingly forceful suggestions from people with access to key information that the precisely planned murder was plotted out step by step in the rooms of a seminary at Akora Khattak. This aspect too has not been followed up on. There is of course the possibility of linkages between various elements potentially involved in the murder. It is strange that the cleric who heads the enormous seminary remains free and involved in forming alliances with mainstream parties who claim to hold progressive ideals. Musharraf, an increasingly erratic man, has joined the voices that insist Asif Ali Zardari plotted to kill Benazir, a rather unlikely idea.

The impact of the mystery of the case is not restricted to the Bhutto-Zardari family alone but to many more across the country. When major murders – such as those of political leaders we cannot afford to lose – remain unsolved, conspiracies multiply as does the sense of uncertainty and injustice which has been a constant thread running through our history. The failure to find answers means that there is greater disquiet in Sindh, the province where the PPP continues to retain its hold, and also in other places.

The failure to apprehend Benazir’s assassins is problematic for many reasons. Musharraf now occupies a place of safety in his self-imposed exile. Was he in any way involved? Was his crime restricted to deliberately denying Benazir security? We simply cannot say. But certainly, more inquiry is needed and more questions asked of a man who appears to have escaped without punishment for actions he committed while in power.

The problem goes back further. We never solved the 1951 murder of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan. The man who apparently killed him at a rally in Rawalpindi was instantly killed himself by police. Rumours of a wider conspiracy were heard then. They continue to be heard. This early history of death, violence and possible connivance from within in many ways carved out our identity as a nation. The death of dictator General Ziaul Haq in that infamous plane crash over Bahawalpur also brought out a whole volume of theories and conjecture which continues even today. It is unlikely we will ever learn the truth in any of these cases.

This lack of truth and lack of clarity is unfortunate in so many ways. Because the investigation skills of our police force are limited, their ethics even more limited and many hurdles exist to prevent them doing even what they are capable of, the consequence is that even despite multiple inquiry commissions, the orders and actions of courts, the tours of inspection teams from overseas, we as citizens never learn much about the true nature of events.

There are many other incidents scattered through our history which follow precisely the same pattern. It is this that has given rise to the idea of there being conspiracies and planned actions so as to achieve a specific goal which are then drawn out as a part of strategies which have been written up. Who writes such plans has always been uncertain. The arrival since the early 2000s of powerful militant groups on the scene and their own set of alliances has added to the range of possibilities. We can as such only wonder.

We have also learnt to accept a situation where we will never learn the full story. This also allows all kinds of interested agents to weave their own stories, plant them in minds and sometimes turn them into what we see as being real. Our world is one in which where a multitude of illusions and distorted images appear everywhere. This surreal imagery makes it impossible to determine what is real, what is a mere shadow and what is a mirage deliberately projected onto the national field by interested players in this dangerous game. The advent of social media makes it even easier to distort, insinuate and plant ideas in minds.

Major events in our history, such as the murder of Benazir Bhutto, then go beyond the impact of such killings on politics, on the assassinated person’s political party or even on the future of the nation. The bullet that leaves the gun of an assassin leaves a deep scar not only on his victim but on all of us. It shapes and creates the world we see around us. Within this world, like the scenes contained inside a snow globe, things change every time the sphere is shaken or even nudged. No one quite controls precisely what changes will take place inside that ball.

It is uncertain in the same way as whether anyone knows what a particular plan would achieve, what kind of ripples it would create or what their magnitude would be. This leaves us living in a situation of constant uncertainty and constant doubt, opening up room for the sometimes wild conjecture and conspiracies that Pakistanis have become rather well-known for. The bullet in fact shatters reality and leaves behind only a fragmented image of what was once in place.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com