By IANS
New Delhi : Indian newspaper readers Friday awoke to screaming headlines and saturation coverage of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination with developments at home knocked off the front pages of most papers.
The reportage was not surprising, considering Bhutto was a household name in India for her struggle against Pakistan’s military dictatorship and her efforts to restore democracy in the country despite uphill odds.
“Benazir Killed, Pak On Edge”, the Indian Express said in a double deck headline, alongside which was a large photograph of a smiling Bhutto waving to the crowd moments before she fell to the bullets of two assassins in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
It also carried a front page box titled “Why, how, what next” posing questions like “Who killed Benazir Bhutto?”, “Could the military be involved?”, “Does her death help Musharraf?” and “Why should India be worried?”
Bhutto’s assassination “is more evidence that what Pakistan needs most is stability and democracy”, the paper said in an editorial headlined “Daughter of destiny”.
“Benazir shot dead”, Hindustan Times proclaimed in an eight-column headline, backing this up with a strap line that said: “Pakistan’s daughter of democracy falls to a suicide attack, throwing the country into political uncertainty and a vortex of jehadi violence”.
“The murder of Benazir Bhutto has driven home one single point: Pakistan has fallen off the edge,” it said in an editorial headlined “The light goes out”.
“A hope is lost”, The Asian Age declared, carrying below the headline a photograph of Bhutto coming down the steps of the dais after addressing the Rawalpindi rally.
“Bhutto killed, Pakistan erupts”, The Statesman headline said, along which was a photograph similar to that in the Indian Express.
“It remains to be seen what happens in Pakistan next,” a front page opinion piece by columnist Rajinder Puri said.
“The prospects could not be more grim. The need for India to be united could not be more urgent,” Puri wrote.
“Benazir Bhutto assassinated”, The Hindu said in a seven-column headline, along with a first person account by its Pakistan correspondent Nirupama Subramanian who was close at hand when the Thursday blast occurred.
The newspaper also front paged a four-column photograph of a contemplative Bhutto with the caption: “Courage personified. Benazir Bhutto combined raw courage with a well-reasoned commitment to democracy.”
“In the last weeks of her life, Benazir demonstrated that she possessed a depth of conviction that was, beyond dispute, exceptional,” The Hindu said in an editorial titled “Pakistan at the edge”.
“Returned, only to be killed”, The Times of India said in an eight-column headline.
It also front paged two photographs of Bhutto, one similar to what The Hindu carried and the other of a rather pensive Benazir, all of 18, when she accompanied her father, then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the Simla Summit of 1972.
“With Benazir’s assassination, the world must be extremely anxious about Pakistan,” The Times of India said in an editorial headlined “Hell next door”.
“Benazir assassinated”, The Pioneer said even as it front paged a first person account titled “Benazir as I knew her” by leading TV anchor Karan Thapar and an obituary headlined “A fighter till the end”.
Even the pink press was not to be left behind, with The Economic Times carrying a large front page box on the assassination titled “Demoncracy! Benazir killed”.
Bhutto’s assassination “has, without doubt, established the ability of purveyors of Islamist terror to derail the nascent democratic process (in Pakistan)”, it said in an editorial headlined “Tragedy in Pakistan”.