Tragedy in Pakistan

Islamic extremists bagged another moderate on Thursday. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, appearing in a town near Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, was assassinated as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle, according to news reports.

The assailant then blew himself up, murdering another two dozen people.

The killing is most certainly an effort to undermine democracy in the Muslim nation. Elections were slated for early January. In the aftermath of Bhutto’s death, riots broke out across the country and President Pervez Musharraf considered postponing the balloting.

President Bush urged Pakistan to go forward with next month’s elections, but this is no doubt a major setback to the administration’s anti-terror policy in the country, which depended heavily on Bhutto’s popularity to usher in a new era of democratic rule and stability in the nuclear-armed nation of 160 million.

Some have blamed the Musharraf government of abetting those who sought to see Bhutto eliminated. After returning to the country in October following a decade in exile, she became a vocal critic of the current prime minister.

History will sort out the details.

Despite such speculation, Bhutto was indeed more a threat to the fanatical element than to the current government. Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Thursday morning “she had met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and told him that these militants threatened not only Pakistan and Afghanistan but also their region and the world.”

Bhutto had escaped an assassination attempt in October after first returning to her homeland. She didn’t survive the next one.

And her unfortunate death again highlights the difficulties of attempting to foster democracy in a region teeming with militant Muslims more comfortable living in 12th century theocracies.