Three years on...

KARACHI: “My son was a hero, he looked just like you,” says Bakht Bibi as she points to a cameraman who tries to help her sit up. Aamir, her 18-year-old boy, was among those killed when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s convoy was attacked on her return to Karachi from self-imposed exile on October 18, 2007.

On Monday, the site for a monument in remembrance of those who were killed in the attack was lit up with small oil lamps and pictures of Pakistan Peoples Party leaders. Party leaders came throughout the course of the evening and into the early hours of the night to pay their respects, offer Fateha, and shower the spot with rose petals. In a makeshift camp, a gallery of pictures taken by the Bhuttos’ personal photographer Agha Feroze took people back through the decades.

But even with this display of solidarity for those who lost loved ones, Bakht Bibi said her family has not received any compensation or support from her leaders, in whose name, she sobbed, her son was sacrificed.

Among those who came to the ground — right opposite the spot on Sharae Faisal, near Karsaz, where the attack took place — was Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza. While speaking to journalists, Raza said that on August 14 last year all the victims’ families were given keys to a flat, monetary compensation as well as a job for the eligible earning family member. Saying that she had personally seen that these affairs were settled, she called on anyone who may have been left out to contact Bilawal House.

Another relative of a victim, who wished not to be named, was more focused on justice for her brother. “My brother was a PPP diehard,” she said teary eyed. “But nothing has been done to bring the attackers to justice. No money or monument can bring my brother back but my family does want justice.”

Senior PPP leader Naheed Khan, who was with Benazir Bhutto before her death, agrees. She paid her respects as well. Speaking to journalists on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto she said, “Those who sit in the (PPP) central executive committee (CEC) are deaf and dumb. The president and prime minister are too busy with non-issues instead of bringing Benazir Bhutto’s assassins to task.”

Ironically, blaring in the background were PPP songs, “Oh martyred princess, we are ashamed your assassins are still alive. Bhutto was alive yesterday and Bhutto lives today as well.”

In response to the status of the investigations, the provincial minister for local government, Agha Siraj Durrani said that if Naheed Khan knew anything about Benazir Bhutto’s murder she should come forth with the information. Speaking specifically on the Karsaz attack, he said that the government has constituted a commission, however, they felt the judge was biased against the PPP and therefore a new commission will be formed. Durrani also blamed the almost immediate clean-up of the Karsaz site after the attack as a cause for the delay in reaching any conclusive judgement. Adding to this, Raza said that the party’s job was to lodge a First Information Report (FIR), which they have done. Now it was the court’s job to take due course of action, “be it suo motu or whatever needs to be done to address the FIR,” Raza said.

While speaking to journalists, Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza said that those who executed the attack were suicide bombers and all those who helped plan it are now dead. “On different occasions and times (in raids and operations) they were eliminated, so there is no one left,” he added.

A bystander, who introduced himself only as Ashraf, said perhaps the government should then rethink spending money on the monument and donate it to the families, many who need it desperately.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2010.