Shocked at the assassination of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto, her political rival Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that he himself felt very insecure and accused President Pervez Musharraf of not providing adequate security.
"It is the most tragic incident in the history of Pakistan. Did Musharraf not know about it?" Sharif told a TV channel.
Asserting that he himself felt very insecure, he said, "Should he (Musharraf) have not given more security?"
"It is tragic not only for the Pakistan Peoples' Party but also for my party," Sharif, himself a former prime minister, said.
Asked whether this incident showed that things were not under control in Pakistan, Sharif, who rushed to the hospital where Bhutto was taken, said, "Are things in control
now? Had they been in control, would this have happened?"
"Only Musharraf can answer this question," he said, adding, "If Musharraf can spend crores on his own security, could he not spend some amount on the security of Bhutto?"
"We both were struggling for the same cause and we had signed the charter of democracy," Sharif said.
Reacting to Bhutto's assassination, an inconsolable Asma Jehangir, chairperson of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, blamed the Army for the incident and said, "There is going to be fear and more bloodshed".
Making an appeal to the international community to 'wake up' to the situation in Pakistan, Jehangir said, "The Army has done it. They have shot her and killed her".
"Will the world wake up they are all killing us," she said adding that the government had not provided security to people like her, who have been threatened.
Former Pakistan defence secretary Talat Masood said, "She (Bhutto) has been speaking strongly against the al Qaeda. It seems it could be them or the opposition".
PPP General Secretary Riaz Khan said, "We had anticipated an attack and we had made adequate security arrangements. We even requested the government to provide security".
