Pakistani Imam Faces Blasphemy Charge [-The EVIL that man do!]

Tuesday 04 September 2012
KL.FM 96.7 (UK)

A Pakistani cleric faces a possible blasphemy charge for allegedly trying to frame a Christian girl for burning pages of the Koran.

Pakistani police are investigating whether imam Khalid Chishti planted pages of the book in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by 14-year-old Rimsha Masih to strengthen the case against her.

The young girl - whom a medical report found to have a lower than average IQ and is said to have Down's Syndrome – has been held in a high-security prison for more than two weeks after being accused of burning the religious text.

Police officer Munir Jafferi says officials registered the blasphemy case against Chishti on Monday after his deputy and two assistants said he tampered with the evidence. He has denied the allegation.

Pakistan garment sector picks Cambodia for relocation

April 25, 2012
Fibre2Fashion (India)

The value-added textile sector, as the garment sector is called in Pakistan, has chosen Cambodia as an alternative destination for relocating their manufacturing units, owing to continued electricity and gas supply problems in the country.

The power and gas shortage is affecting productivity in Pakistan’s apparel sector, which in turn, is affecting the sector’s exports.

In March 2012, garment exports from Pakistan declined to US$ 125.329 million, as against the exports of US$ 165.094 million during the same month last year, showing a year-on-year decline of 24.9 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Pakistan, Russia and the Threat to the Afghan War

November 30, 2011
By George Friedman
Stratfor 

Days after the Pakistanis closed their borders to the passage of fuel and supplies for the NATO-led war effort in Afghanistan, for very different reasons the Russians threatened to close the alternative Russia-controlled Northern Distribution Network (NDN). The dual threats are significant even if they don’t materialize. If both routes are cut, supplying Western forces operating in Afghanistan becomes impossible. Simply raising the possibility of cutting supply lines forces NATO and the United States to recalculate their position in Afghanistan.

The possibility of insufficient lines of supply puts NATO’s current course in Afghanistan in even more jeopardy. It also could make Western troops more vulnerable by possibly requiring significant alterations to operations in a supply-constrained scenario. While the supply lines in Pakistan most likely will reopen eventually and the NDN likely will remain open, the gap between likely and certain is vast.

The Pakistani Outpost Attack

The Pakistani decision to close the border crossings at Torkham near the Khyber Pass and Chaman followed a U.S. attack on a Pakistani position inside Pakistan’s tribal areas near the Afghan border that killed some two-dozen Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistanis have been increasingly opposed to U.S. operations inside Pakistani territory. This most recent incident took an unprecedented toll, and triggered an extreme response. The precise circumstances of the attack are unclear, with details few, contradictory and disputed. The Pakistanis have insisted it was an unprovoked attack and a violation of their sovereign territory. In response, Islamabad closed the border to NATO; ordered the United States out of Shamsi air base in Balochistan, used by the CIA; and is reviewing military and intelligence cooperation with the United States and NATO.

Cambodian consulate inaugurated in Lahore

Monday, August 22, 2011
The News (Pakistan)

LAHORE: The first Honorary Consul General of Cambodia in Pakistan, Chaudhry Salik Hussain, has said that the Pakistan-Cambodia Business Council will soon be established for cooperation between both the countries.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Cambodian Consulate in Pakistan here on Sunday, he said that he wanted to see both countries rise and grow to great economic fronts and hoped that the consulate would be a milestone in achieving the goal. Punjab Governor Latif Khosa, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat, Senior Federal Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Shafey Hussain and Haris Elahi were also present.

Politiktoons No. 162 - Pakistan Security

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

How U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden

May 2, 2011
By the CNN Wire Staff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pakistani official: Members of Pakistan's intelligence service were on site during the operation
• Three other men and a woman who was used as a human shield were also killed, officials say
• Source: Osama bin Laden resisted the assault and was killed in a firefight

(CNN) -- The mission that killed one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders was carried out by U.S. forces with the cooperation of Pakistan, U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday night.

Osama bin Laden -- the longtime leader of al Qaeda -- was killed by U.S. forces in a mansion about 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with other family members, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

Members of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, were on site in Abbottabad during the operation, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.

Bin Laden resisted the assault and was killed in a firefight, senior administration officials said.

Massive Earthquake Hits Southwest Pakistan

Two Pakistani men, left, read verses from the Quran as they gathered with others outside their homes after as an earthquake hit Pakistan, early Wednesday. (Arshad Butt/Associated Press)

JANUARY 18, 2011
By TOM WRIGHT and ZAHID HUSSAIN
Wall Street Journal

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted southwestern Pakistan early on Wednesday in a sparsely-populated area near the nation's borders with Iran and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of large casualties. The quake's epicenter was 30 miles west of Dalbandin, a town in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Television reports from Quetta, the provincial capital and the most populous city in the area, appeared to show that it had been spared major damage.

Officials in Karen, another town close to the epicenter, told the Associated Press that the town suffered no widespread damage.

Pakistan: Asma Jahangir - First Woman President of Supreme Court Bar Association [-Hopefully, one day Cambodia will see the same]

Pakistan - Victory of Ms. Asma Jahangir as President of the Supreme Court of Pakistan

November 2, 2010
Source: Asian Human Rights Commission - AHRC

Ms. Asma Jahangir

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2010statements/2910/

The Asian Human Rights Commission extends its congratulation to Ms. Asma Jahangir and her colleagues for their victory of different offices at the Supreme Court Bar Association elections.

Asma Jahangir’s victory as the president of the highest bar association of Pakistan will strengthen the lawyer's movement for an independent bar, the supremacy of the judiciary and the rule of law. Her success is a victory for the democratic forces, lovers of freedom of expression and the independence of the media.

From 1998 to 2004, Ms. Jahangir served as the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions. From 2004 until July 2010, she was the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. She resigned as chairperson of the human rights commission of Pakistan in July of this year in order to run for the SCBA presidency.

The AHRC sincerely hopes that she would continue to contribute to the improvement of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan. Under her leadership the Bar can continue the work of her predecessors to ensure the independence of the Bar so that the interest of justice can be served.

We hope that Ms Jahangir will take decisive steps to create a legal aid system that will ensure access to justice for all, particularly the poor and the under privileged.

The survival of the rule of law and the independence of judiciary requires overcoming such problems as the undue delays in adjudication and the inefficiencies in the administration of justice inherited from the past. If this is to happen there needs to be the proper allocation of budget for the administration of justice by the government. When adequate funds are not available for the proper functioning of all sections of the justice mechanism people are deprived of justice. The defects of the justice mechanism gives rise to the many abuses which end in problems such as forced disappearances and other gross abuses of human rights.

Today leadership is required from the bar as well as from the judiciary to deal with these problems so as to ensure the benefits of a modernised system of justice for the people of Pakistan.

We trust that Ms. Jahangir will give expression to the aspirations and inspire the bar as well as the judiciary to pursue this objective.

AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

In Obama Strategy, Cambodians See the Past

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
03 December 2009

The new military strategy unveiled by US President Barack Obama on Tuesday will not be enough to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda without winning the hearts of the Afghan and Pakistani people, Cambodian officials said Thursday.

Obama announced Tuesday he would inject 30,000 more troops into a counterinsurgency strategy in the region, but he also gave a deadline of June 2011 to bring US forces home.

“It is very difficult to win against al Qaeda and the Taliban, but the United States military and NATO alliance must defeat the international terrorists, for peace and economic growth in the world,” said ruling Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yiep.

“This strategy is the United States’ ambition, to eliminate al Qaeda and the Taliban,” he said. “But the strategy cannot succeed…if the new strategy has no policy for social affairs to improve the living standards and economics of the Afghan people.”

The US should establish a strategy to compromise and fulfill the needs of the Afghan people to lessen the influence of the Islamists, he said.

In Cambodia, the effects of a failed counterinsurgency strategy are deeply felt. Khmer Rouge guerrillas overtook the entire country in less than 10 years, starting as a small peasant revolution in the countryside and ultimately defeating the US-backed forces of Lon Nol.

The Khmer Rouge victory, in April 1975, was followed by the implementation of “Year Zero,” where everyday Cambodians were marched out of the cities and into agricultural collectives, where eventually as many as 2 million people perished.

“If Obama does not have a new strategy for Afghanistan, the Kabul government will collapse, and there will be bloodshed more serious than the Khmer Rouge regime,” said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc.

Phay Siphan, a government spokesman and a Cambodian-American whose nephew is serving in Afghanistan, said the US should be careful in its war there, considering its experiences in the Vietnam War.

The fate of the US in Afghanistan could end as badly, he said.

High demand for textile in Cambodia: Pakistan

4/20/2008
By our correspondent
The News (Pakistan)

KARACHI: Minister of Pakistan Embassy in Cambodia, Naseerullah Baloch has informed that there is a high demand for textile apparels in Cambodia and local businessmen should concentrate on the region to increase bilateral trade.

He said that Cambodia had recently discovered oil in its region, which would be utilised in the coming years, thereby predicting strong economic growth and increased international trade that would help the country to prosper.

During a meeting with the members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he further added that the textile industry should export raw materials and yarn to the country, since it is the strongest industry in both states.

He stated that Pakistani businessmen should also set up warehouse facilities to store the goods they export from here. Since Cambodia is a poor country whose imports were worth only US$2 billion and had almost insignificant exports.

Baloch said that pharmaceutical is another industry which has high demand there and Pakistan should work to promote local products in single country exhibitions. He added that they would be also participating in the My Karachi exhibition to be held in June.

Cambodian leader slams UN for giving asylum to refugees without consulting government

Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's prime minister slammed the U.N.'s refugee agency Thursday for using Cambodian territory to grant political asylum to foreign refugees without first consulting his government.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said the Cambodian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has granted asylum to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

"What right does it (UNHCR) have to use Cambodian territory to provide foreign nationals with political asylum without seeking permission from the Cambodian authorities," Hun Sen said in a speech at a development conference.

He did not say how many refugees were in Cambodia or how long they had been there. He said he ordered the foreign affairs and interior ministries to look into the issue with the UNHCR.

Toshi Kawauchi, a UNHCR protection officer, declined to comment on the issue, saying in an e-mail his office is "not in a position to discuss the numbers and other details of the refugees."

The relationship between Cambodia and the U.N. agency has been rocky in recent years, especially over the issue of refugees fleeing neighboring Vietnam.

Thousands of Vietnamese hill tribe people known as Montagnards have fled to Cambodia since 2001, when Vietnam's communist government cracked down on protests against land confiscation and restrictions on religious freedom. Many have been resettled in the United States, and a small number have voluntarily returned to Vietnam.

Pakistan Opposition Poised to Win Anti-Musharraf Vote

Supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto celebrate primary results for Pakistan's general elections in front of her residence in Karachi February 18, 2008. Counting began on Monday after an election in Pakistan which was far less violent than feared, although it could result in a parliament set on driving U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf from power. REUTERS/Zahid Hussein

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's opposition parties were poised to win parliamentary elections as voters sought an end to President Pervez Musharraf's eight years of military rule.

``It seems, according to predictions, that the opposition has won,'' Tariq Azeem, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam said in a telephone interview from the capital, Islamabad.

Early results from the 64,000 polling booths showed gains for the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. A two-thirds majority would give the opposition the mandate to press Musharraf to reverse constitutional changes that have kept him in power since a 1999 military coup.

``Going by the trend the opposition parties will win, if they don't sweep they will at least get the majority,'' Talat Masood, former general and a political and defense analyst, said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. ``Definitely, the results are being delayed and maybe the authorities will try to take advantage of the night but I doubt very much they will be able to manipulate.''

With 111 of 272 constituencies reporting, Bhutto's party won 33 seats in the National Assembly, with Sharif's group securing 38, according to the private GEO Television's Web site. The Pro-Musharraf party won in 13 constituencies, it said. The official Election Commission tally showed Bhutto's party with 12 seats, Sharif's party with 13 seats and Musharraf's backers with four victories, out of 41 parliamentary seats.

Terror Front

The election will also re-shape a key front in the U.S.-led war on terror by sweeping away the Islamic government of the North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. With almost half of the province's voting results announced early today, secular, anti-Taliban parties were winning about two- thirds of the legislative seats and are poised to form the next provincial government.

``A secular government is a very, very positive development,'' said Hassan Abbas, a researcher on political and security issues at Harvard University. ``There is now a much better opportunity'' to oppose the growing influence and violence of the Taliban and allied militant groups in the province, Abbas said.

Even a landslide opposition victory nationwide won't necessarily dislodge the president. Musharraf, 64, has the constitutional authority to dissolve parliament. That power and concerns about rigged balloting lead some analysts to predict that opposition clout will remain limited.

Losing Support

Musharraf has lost support since March, when he began trying to oust the independent-minded Supreme Court chief justice, and opposition increased in November when he imposed emergency rule to sack dozens of top judges who refused to acknowledge his supreme authority. His popularity also has been further undercut by former prime minister Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination while campaigning.

Exit polls from Punjab province, which provides more than half of the 272 directly elected seats in parliament, showed key allies of Musharraf losing in urban areas.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who served in Musharraf's cabinet, lost in both constituencies where he ran in the city of Rawalpindi, Dawn News reported. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam, lost in his hometown of Gujrat, according to Dawn and another private channel, Geo News.

Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, who was named as candidate for Prime Minister by the party, lost two seats but won in the city of Lahore, according to the Election Commission.

`Anti-Incumbency Swing'

``There has been an anti-incumbency swing, and it looks like it's of a big magnitude for people like this to fall,'' said Haris Gazdar, a Pakistani political and economic researcher at the London School of Economics.

Musharraf, 64, told state-run Pakistan Television the elections were ``free, fair and transparent'' after he deployed more than 80,000 troops to curb violence in the nuclear-armed nation. The election commission announced the first results 2 1/2 hours later than scheduled with victories for independent candidates in two tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

``The biggest gain is by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (of Nawaz Sharif) and it will be the biggest upset,'' said former ruling party spokesman Azeem. ``Everyone believed the Pakistan Peoples Party will sweep the election but even in straight fight between Sharif's party and the PPP, Sharif's party has been ahead.''

Leaders Off Ballot

Neither Sharif nor the leader of Bhutto's party, her husband Asif Ali Zardari, 51, were on the ballot. Amin Fahim, the PPP's vice chairman, is the likely choice as the next prime minister.

Fahim, 68, is a longtime parliamentarian who led the party for seven years while Bhutto was in exile. Pakistan's parliament elects the prime minister, who is typically the leader of the party or coalition with the most seats. Since Musharraf's 1999 coup, the presidency has held executive power, while the prime minister oversees domestic policy in consultation with the president.

``We won't comment on the results or trend at the moment but we knew our position will be very good,'' said Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for Pakistan Peoples Party.

Party activists gathered across rural Sindh to celebrate the party's victory. Hundreds of supporters waved the red, green and black striped party flag and danced to pro-Bhutto songs, Dawn News reported.

Musharraf's Partner

Altaf Hussain, the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which traditionally wins in Karachi and other parts of urban Sindh, said his party is willing to work with Bhutto's and Sharif's parties, GEO reported. Hussain's party was a coalition member of Musharraf's government.

Musharraf emphasized his economic record to attract voters to parties that support him. The country's gross domestic product has doubled to $146 billion since 1999 with average annual growth of 7.5 percent in the past four years.

The opposition parties say the benefits of economic growth haven't trickled down to the general public, which faces wheat- flour, electricity and gas shortages amid inflation.

An estimated 81 million Pakistanis were registered to vote for 272 lawmakers in the 342-member parliament. The remaining 70 seats will be filled by women and minorities picked by legislators later. In five elections since 1988, voter turnout has been between 30 and 40 percent.

Religious Party Routed

The turbulent North-West Frontier Province, dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group, turned sharply away from the main Islamic religious party, which has given support both to the Taliban and to President Musharraf.

The Jamaat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) formed the core of a pro- Taliban coalition that won control of the provincial government in the last elections in 2002. That coalition splintered in recent months and the JUI is being swept aside in key races by an anti-Taliban group, the Awami National Party (ANP), according to official results compiled from local polling places by the private TV networks.

The ANP had won 19 seats by early Tuesday, according to the independent Dawn News TV channel. The JUI's coalition, called the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, early today held only seven of the 46 seats that had been declared. In the adjacent federally administered tribal zone, which is the main stronghold of the Taliban, seven of 10 seats had been won by independents rather than the coalition.

Pashtun Homeland

Harvard's Abbas said the new secular provincial government will be weak in some ways and will be undermined by Pakistani or U.S. attacks on al-Qaeda targets in the Pashtun zone that cause civilian casualties.

The mountainous province of 20 million people is a big part at of the ethnic Pashtun tribal homeland that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Along with an adjacent, semi- autonomous tribal zone, the province has been a key sanctuary and recruiting ground for the Taliban, whose influence and violence have spread in the past year.

Whatever the election result, Pakistan's military will continue to be a major power center, as it has for much of the nation's 60-year history. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., Musharraf has won praise from President George W. Bush for using the army to fight terrorists.

Musharraf, who seized power as army chief, appointed Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, 52, in November to succeed him as army leader. Kayani, who received military training in the U.S., is Pakistan's former spy chief and was an aide to Bhutto when she was prime minister in the 1980s.

U.S. Aid

The U.S., which has pumped $10 billion into Pakistan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with the aim of securing the country against al-Qaeda, is depending on the vote to further a transition to civilian government from Musharraf's military rule.

U.S. intelligence agencies are critical of Musharraf's efforts to control extremists and say al-Qaeda has established bases in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The number of people killed in terrorist attacks and sectarian violence in Pakistan more than doubled last year to 2,116 from 967 in 2006, the Interior Ministry in Islamabad says.

``The overall security situation has been satisfactory as there are no reports of terrorist attacks in the country,'' ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said in a phone interview from Islamabad late yesterday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in Lahore, Pakistan, at jrupert3@bloomberg.net

Cambodia Condemns Killing of Bhutto [-Mu Sochua: "I think the whole world should strongly condemn the violence used on Ms. Bhutto's life"]

Women supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto chant slogans during a protest rally in Multan, Pakistan on Friday, Dec 28, 2007. Bhutto's supporters rampaged through cities to protest her assassination less than two weeks before a crucial election, ransacking banks and setting train stations ablaze, officials said. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 December 2007

Cambodia joined world leaders in condemning the assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, calling it a terrorists' act of cowardice.

Hun Sen told reporters Friday at the inauguration of a hospital in Phnom Penh that Bhutto's death is a serious blow to Pakistan. He appealed to all Pakistani political parties and supporters to be patient and refrain from violence.

"The problem in Pakistan is a serious one,” Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, told reporters. “The world and Cambodia condemn this act of cowardice; we appeal for the criminals to be prosecuted.”

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide bomber attack Thursday while leaving a campaign rally for her party in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani police told world media that the suicide bomber shots her shortly before detonating explosives and blowing himself up.

Former Minister of Women's Affairs and Sam Rainsy Party deputy secretary-general Mu Sochua said Ms. Bhutto’s death is an important loss for Pakistan.

"As a woman politician, and one who respects democracy principles, I am not only shocked, but regrets the loss of life due to a cruel act on a woman who dares to be a Pakistan prime minister candidate,” she said. “I think the whole world should strongly condemn the violence used on Ms. Bhutto's life."

Ms. Bhutto was buried Friday afternoon next to her father, also a former prime minister of Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of mourners surrounded the graveyard near her family's home in Sindh province, in southern Pakistan.

Hun Sen Expresses His Condolence to Bhutto's

Police violence on Khmer Krom monks (Photo: Licadho)

Fri Dec 28, 2007
Op-Ed Khmer Quorum
Posted Online

In his speech yesterday, during a hospital inauguration ceremony, PM Hun Sen deeply expressed his sympathetic sorrow to Ms. Bhutto, a champion of democracy in Pakistan, who was slain by Muslim extremists. The whole people in the world were shaken to see Ms. Bhutto's martyrdom regardless of whom they are. In Cambodia where political assassination has become a common practice in every election, what has happened to Ms. Bhutto would remind Mr. Hun Sen that this act of violence is totally inhumane and strongly condemned by all civilized people around the world.

Now it is time for Mr. Hun Sen to refresh his mind and to take a drastic measure to curb violence in the upcoming general election. We want to see our next election free, fair, and peaceful. We live in the country where 90 percent of our people adhere and follow Theravada Buddhism which teaches non-violence and respect to all sentient beings. However, in our society, violence has become a mean to solve all kinds of problems, even a simple one. Recently, police under Hun Sen's order used excessive force to beat up Buddhist monks who just peacefully came to submit their petition to the Vietnamese embassy.

This problem could be handled peacefully without using of force. But our society is clinging to embrace violence on each other even on Buddhist monks who deserve our respect and protection. We may break some rules of Buddha's teaching, but we cannot break the law that clearly written in the constitution. And what the Buddhist monks had done, was just to exercise their freedom of expression which is guaranteed by our constitution.

All kinds of violence are bad, sad, painful, suffering, and create emotional sorrow for all sentient beings. If Mr. Hun Sen can be disturbed by the tragic event in Pakistan, why didn't he get disturb to see our helpless monks got beaten up and tortured by his police forces? We expect from now on that Mr. Hun Sen has learned to digest all sorrow and suffering that have happened to all our people in the country, and he will use his power and wisdom to stop all kinds of violence that have prevailed over our society.

Pakistan's Bhutto assassinated

Benazir Bhutto waves to supporters as she arrives for an election compaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She and at least 20 others were killed as the rally ended. Attack jeopardizes elections, path to democracy in nuclear-armed nation (Photo: Aamir Qureshi / AFP-Getty Images)

Thurs., Dec. 27, 2007
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally.

The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile south Asian nation, which has nuclear weapons and a support base for Muslim extremists.

Pakistani troops were put on "red alert" across the country as President Pervez Musharraf blamed terrorists for Bhutto's death and said he would redouble his efforts to fight them.

"I want to express my resolve and seek the cooperation from the entire nation and we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out," he said in a nationally televised speech. He announced three days of mourning for her across the country.

In the United States, President Bush demanded that those responsible be brought to justice, calling them “murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy.”

Bhutto's supporters erupted in anger and grief after her death, attacking police and burning tires and election campaign posters in several cities. At the hospital where she died, some smashed glass and wailed, chanting slogans against Musharraf.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

“She has been martyred,” added party official Rehman Malik. Bhutto was 54.

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, then the gunman blew himself up. No group has claimed responsibility.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene of the bombing could see body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the park where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.

The road outside was stained with blood. People screamed for ambulances. Others gave water to the wounded lying in the street.

The clothing of some of the victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies.

Security had been tight, with hundreds of riot police manning security checkpoints with metal detectors around what was Bhutto's first campaign rally since returning from exile two months ago.

Bhutto had planned an earlier rally in the city, but Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears. In October, suicide bombers struck a parade celebrating Bhutto’s return, killing more than 140 people in the southern city of Karachi.

Musharraf mulling elections
Parties across the country were stepping up campaigning for the Jan. 8 elections after a Muslim holiday late last week and a holiday on Tuesday for the birthday of Pakistan’s founder and revered first leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff where they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the elections, an official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Western allies had hoped the elections will restore stability in a nuclear-armed country vital to their battle against Islamist militancy. The three-way race had pitted Bhutto against the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and a party that backs Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup.

Sharif and Bhutto had talked of an alliance, and Sharif on Thursday spoke to Bhutto supporters outside the hospital, saying: "Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death. Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."

The elections are for provincial parliaments and for a National Assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn. It was not clear if they would still be held on schedule.

In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has its headquarters.

Before the rally, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Bhutto had met with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the end of his two-day visit here.

“We too believe that it is essential for both of our countries, and indeed the larger Muslim world, to work to protect the interest of Islamic civilization by eliminating extremism and terrorism,” she said after their meeting.

U.S. heavily invested in Pakistan
Bhutto’s return to the country after years in exile and the ability of her party to contest free and fair elections had been a cornerstone of Bush’s policy in Pakistan, where U.S. officials had watched Musharraf’s growing authoritarianism with increasing unease.

Those concerns were compounded by the rising threat from al-Qaida and Taliban extremists, particularly in Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal areas bordering Afghanistan despite the fact that Washington had pumped nearly $10 billion in aid into the country since Musharraf became an indispensible counter-terrorism ally after Sept. 11, 2001.

Irritated by the situation, Congress last week imposed new restrictions on U.S. assistance to Pakistan, including tying $50 million in military aid to State Department assurances that the country is making “concerted efforts” to prevent terrorists from operating inside its borders.

Under the law, which provides a total of $300 million in aid to Pakistan and was signed by President Bush on Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also must guarantee Pakistan is implementing democratic reforms, including releasing political prisoners and restoring an independent judiciary.

The law also prevents any of the funds can be used for cash transfer assistance to Pakistan, but that stipulation had already been adopted by the administration.

Despite the congressional move, Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs who had been instrumental in engineering the Bhutto-Musharraf reconciliation, said he had little doubt that the administration would get the money.

Bush, in his comments Thursday, expressed his deepest condolences to Bhutto’s family and to the families of others slain in the attack and to all the people of Pakistan.

“We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism. We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto’s memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life,” he said.

Family targeted over the years
Bhutto's family is no stranger to violence.

Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan's first popularly elected prime mister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.

She said the charges were politically motivated but in 1999 chose to stay in exile rather than face them.

Both of her brothers died in mysterious circumstances and she had said al-Qaida assassins tried to kill her several times in the 1990s.

Intelligence reports have said al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistani jihadi groups have sent suicide bombers after her.

In an interview on Oct. 22 with NBC's TODAY show, Bhutto said returning to Pakistan and politics was worth the risk to her life. “It was no secret to me that I could be attacked,” she said. “I chose to return and put my life on the line to defend a principle I believe in.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Cambodia supports Pakistan as full dialogue partner for ASEAN [in exchange for $10 million loan from Pakistan]

PHNOM PENH, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government fully supports Pakistan as full dialogue partner for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), local media reported Saturday.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong has told newly appointed Pakistan Ambassador Mohammad Younis Khan that Cambodia supported Pakistan which was proposed to be full dialogue partner with ASEAN, Sin Bun Thoeurn, head of press department of the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, was quoted by the Raksmey Kampuchea Daily as saying.

Meanwhile, Cambodia and Pakistan will improve bilateral ties and cooperation through the embassy in Phnom Penh, which was opened in 2005, Sin Bun Thoeurn said.

Hor Nam Hong also urged the Pakistan side to help implement the project with 10 million U.S. dollars of loan for an irrigation system in Kampong Speu province, which was pledged by Pakistan while its premier Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali visited Cambodia in 2004, Sin Bun Thoeurn added.