Murtaza Bhutto
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| Murtaza Bhutto | |
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| Born | 18 September 1954 Karachi, Pakistan |
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| Died | 20 September 1996 Karachi, Pakistan |
| Nationality | Pakistan |
| Political party | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| Spouse(s) | Ghinwa Bhutto |
| Relations | Benazir Bhutto (sister) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (father) |
| Children | Fatima Bhutto Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior |
| Residence | 70 Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan |
| Religion | [Sunni] Islam |
Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto (September 18, 1954 - September 20, 1996) (Sindhi: مير مرتضی ڀٽو, Urdu: مير مرتضی بھٹو) was a member of Pakistan's powerful Bhutto family, elder son of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the brother of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto. He was killed in a police encounter in 1996.
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[edit] Biography
Like his elder sister, Benazir, Murtaza Bhutto was a novice to active politics until 1978 when his father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court. In the span of 15 years, however, Murtaza has managed to gain considerable notoriety for a brand of politics that has moved in diametrically opposing direction to Benazir Bhutto's.
Born in Karachi on September 18, 1954, Mir Murtaza received his early education at St. Mary's School, Rawalpindi. He later passed his `O' levels from the Karachi Grammar School in 1971.
In 1972, Murtaza went off to Harvard University where he studied Government, specialising in strategic studies. He graduated with honours in 1976, and his thesis was entitled ``Modicum of Harmony which dealt with the spread of nuclear weapons in general, and the implications of India's nuclear capability for Pakistan in particular.
Murtaza went on to Christ Church College Oxford, his father's alma mater, for a three-year course to read for an M.Lit. degree. But the death penalty awarded to his father in 1978 seriously disrupted his studies. Murtaza was on the verge of rushing home when he received a message from his father asking him to remain abroad where he could mobilise an international campaign for his release.
Murtaza had been present in Pakistan when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government was overthrown on July 5, 1977. Along with other family members, Murtaza had returned to Al-Murtaza, Larkana, and at the time was busy helping in the preparations for the elections schedule for October 1977. But on September 16, 1977 when Bhutto was arrested from Al-Murtaza, he ordered his son to leave the country.
After Bhutto was sentenced, Murtaza joined hands with his brother the late Shahnawaz Bhutto, to initiate a campaign to muster international support to revoke the death penalty looming over his father's head. Leaders from Syria, Libya, and the PLO were particularly supportive. Mercy appeals were sent by several heads of state to General Ziaul Haq which failed, however, to sway his decision.
Murtaza and Shahnawaz both cut short their respective educations and decided to devote themselves to avenge their father's death. Eventually they resorted to taking up arms, their main target being General Ziaul Haq. This marked the beginning of a new and more controversial era in Murtaza's life.
His Religion was (Not Sunni but Shia] Islam
[edit] Al-Zulfikar Organization
Al-Zulfiqar was a leftist insurgency and militant organization of Pakistan. It was formed in the late seventies by the sons of former Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was also the Chairman of Pakistan's biggest political party, PPP. Al-Zulfiqar was formed to avenge the killing of Bhutto by the right-wing military regime of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1976. Zia had deposed the populist Bhutto regime in a Military coup in July 1976.
Bhutto was hanged by the Zia regime after a one-sided and controversial trial, Bhutto's two sons, Murtaza Bhutto and Shahnawaz Bhutto went into exile in Afghanistan which was then being ruled by a Soviet-backed communist government. There the two sons formed the Al-Zulfiqar along with hundreds of Pakistan Peoples Party militants who had escaped Zia's persecution.
The Al-Zulfikar Organization (AZO) was born at this point, and disgruntled elements among the younger members of the PPP, disappointed in the party's leadership, flocked to Murtaza's side. The AZO, however, went on to earn the terrorist charge, a label which has dogged Murtaza ever since.
For his part, he has always denied the charge that he espouses the politics of terrorism. "Why is the AZO called a terrorist organisation? Why are we blamed for treason or sedition? What General Zia did to the constitution and to the elected prime minister of the country was real treason. What we did was something that every patriotic Pakistan should do in order to safeguard the interest of the country," Murtaza maintains.
Religion [Not Sunni but Shia] Islam
[edit] 1981 PIA hijacked
Al-Zulfiqar hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Peshawar to Kabul in March 1981.
The hijacking went on for thirteen days in which Lieutenant Tariq Rahim was shot dead, the hijackers mistakenly believing he was the son of General Rahimuddin Khan, executing him following Murtaza's conferring with KHAD chief Mohammad Najibullah. This forced the Zia regime to accept the demands of the hijackers of releasing dozens of Pakistan Peoples Party and other leftist political prisoners languishing in Pakistani jails.
[edit] Murtaza Bhutto and Asif Zardari
After returning to Pakistan from exile, Bhutto offered his sister Benazir Bhutto the chance to revive the manifesto of PPP which his father championed. However, he was not happy with the corrupt ways of Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari and wanted him removed from influence in the PPP. When his sister decided to side with her husband, Murtaza became a strong critic of PPP government and the ongoing corruption. Zardari, and his protege Abdullah Shah Lakiyari (then Chief Minister of Sind), obstructed Murtaza's political compaign. Murtaza invited Zardari to talk in private and settle the problems within the family. However, the meeting ended in confrontation and Murtaza shaved off half of Zardari’s moustache. This humiliated Zardari. It is widely believed in Pakistan that this incident drove Zardari to rage and he used help from Lakiyari's police machinery to assassinate Murtaza Bhutto. Benazir became highly unpopular after this incident and her limo was stoned by PPP workers when she tried to visit Murtaza's funeral ceremonies. After Benazir's government was dismissed in 1996, Zardari was detained for having a part in Murtaza's assassination. However, no charges were ever proven due to lack of evidence (the scene of Murtaza's assassination was wiped off before any Police investigators could arrive at the scene.
[edit] Assassination
On the night of Thursday 20 September 1996, the estranged brother of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and the only surviving son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead along with 6 other party activists in a police encounter near his residence.
Among the dead was Aashiq Jatoi, the acting provincial chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto Group). He was a brother in-law of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. The injured list included six Party activists of Murtaza Bhutto's party and three policemen, including additional Superintendent of Police of Saddar area of Karachi and two other station house officers.
Just before his death Mir Murtaza Bhutto, 42, had attacked the government, warning it not to arrest him without warrant. "There would be trouble if the Police tries to arrest me without a warrant," he had declared.
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rushed to the city when told about the encouner. Begum Nusrat, mother of Murtaza, was in London.
The versions of the encounter given by the injured party activists and the police differed considerably. The police earlier claimed that they reached the residence of Murtaza Bhutto at number 70 Clifton, at 8:30pm, to arrest him.
The policemen alleged that the security guards belonging to Murtaza, stationed at his house, opened fire, injuring several policemen. The fire was returned by the police party which caused fatal injuries to the Prime Minister's brother and his supporters.
Sources said that after the incident the Rangers again cordoned off the area and searched the house at number 70 Clifton. Murtaza was sought by the police on the charge of inciting attacks on two CIA Centers the previous Tuesday where it was thought that his party activist Ali Sunara was detained.
A Sindh government handout issued late in the night said that Murtaza Bhutto's vehicle was allowed to proceed to his residence by the SHO Clifton after it was stopped. The gunmen of Mir Murtaza Bhutto sitting on the land cruiser vehicle resorted to indiscriminate firing injuring the ASP Saddar, SHO Clifton and a person in a taxi on the spot.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto's gunmen sitting in his vehicle also started firing straight at the police. The police under the command of ASP Drakshan and ASP Saddar retaliated in self-defence and after an encounter of 20 to 25 minutes, took control of the situation.
On the other hand Dr. Mazhar Memon, Senior Vice President of the party's Hyderabad Division, blamed the police for opening fire on Mir Murtaza Bhutto without any provocation.
"We were returning from a public meeting at Surjani Town, District West of Karachi, when the police and Rangers stopped near the 70 Clifton," Dr. Memon stated at the JPMC Casualty Department.
He said that Mir Murtaza Bhutto had exited the car to talk with the official. The policemen suddenly opened fire on Murtaza, seriously injuring him. Dr Memon said, "I also came out of the vehicle to help my injured leader who was on the ground and I received a bullet in my leg." Dr Memon added that when Murtaza's guards saw him on the ground in a pool of blood, they rushed out and opened fire on the police.The policemen ignored Murtaza and continued firing.
Memon added that when the firing died down, the Rangers who were on the spot jumped out from their vehicles. Some eyewitnesses said that Murtaza after getting out of his car challenged the policemen to shoot him. A man was seen struggling for his life after being hit by police fire in front of the DIG police residence. The firing continued for half-an-hour.
The firing caused great panic in the area. Soon after the incident when newsmen rushed to the hospital they were beaten up by highly charged policemen. The personnel of the law-enforcement agencies snatched the cameras of photographers and cocked their guns. One of the police officers ordered his force to open fire at journalists should they ignore his orders and advance.
Later some of policemen who had stopped Murtaza Bhutto's vehicle claimed that they did not know whose car they had stopped. They said that they would not have opened fire on the motorcade if they had known that it was Murtaza's. Other said that they had fired in panic and in self-defence. Senior police officials were tight-lipped about the tragedy.
When Murtaza was rushed to the Mideast hospital in an official car, sources said, that blood was oozing out from Murtaza's mouth. He tried to throw away the oxygen mask but the doctors kept putting it back. He then collapsed and lost consciousness. At this time Murtaza's wife Ghinva and his daughter Fatimah reached the hospital. Both of them were crying. They were ordered out of the ICU, where the only official present was the Deputy Commissioner South, Arif Elahi.
Soon the specialist doctors from Jinnah Hospital reached the Mideast Hospital, where the bullet-ridden body of Murtaza was taken. But no anesthetist was available at the hospital, which normally does not treat medico-legal cases. Mir Murtaza received bullets on his collarbone, chest, leg and in abdomen. His body refused to accept blood transfusion while he was being operated upon. Doctors revived Murtaza's heart once when it stopped but failed to do so the second time.
The only surviving son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto died at 11:45pm but his death was announced at 12:25am by the hospital authorities.
Police said Murtaza's followers who were in three cars returning from a party fired first when asked to stop. Police returned fire, killing six people all members of Murtaza's faction. This was confirmed by the Deputy Inspector General of police Shoaib Suddle. He further said that the police had insisted on checking the vehicles because of tightened security after two bomb blasts in Karachi on Wednesday the 18th September 1996 in which one person was killed and at least four others were wounded.
The body of Murtaza Bhutto was taken for burial on Saturday by air to Larkano. He was laid to rest at the family graveyard in Garhi Khuda Buksh near Larkano, Sindh.
The party activists who were wounded were identified as Dr Mazhar Memon, Siraj Hyder, Ismail , Ayaz, Asghar and Bachhal. The policemen who received bullet injuries were ASP Saddar Shahid Hayat SHO Clifton Haq Nawaz Sayyal and SHO Napier Junaid. Two injured remained unidentified. The injured were moved to the Aga Khan Hospital and Civil Hospital.
Those who were killed with Murtaza were identified as Ashiq Jatoi, Rehman Brohi, Sajjad Hyder, Abdul Sattar Rajpur, Yar Mohammed Baloch and Wajahat Jokhio. The bodies reached JPMC Hospital at about 3:30am.
The police arrested 12 supporters of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and seized about dozen AK-47 Rifles from their possession.
On Dec 3, 2009, A sessions court in Karachi acquitted twenty policemen in the Murtaza Bhutto murder case pertaining to an armed attack on a police team in which two officials were wounded and a taxi driver were also killed.
The same court also pardoned six workers of the Pakistan People's party Shaheed Bhutto in the September1996 murder case.
During the 13 years that the trial lingered on, a number of judges were appointed to hear the murder case.
The change of judges is also one of the many reasons behind the delay in disposal of the present case.
Other reasons include a lack of interest of the prosecution witnesses and long adjournments sought by the counsel for President Asif Ali.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, brother of former premier Benazir Bhutto, was killed in an alleged police encounter along with Ashique Jatoi and six other associates near his Clifton residence on Septermber 20, 1996.
The accused acquitted yesterday included Mazhar Memon, Asghar Ali, Asif Ali Jatoi, Mehmood Bhallai, Ghulam Mustafa Chandio and Akhter Ali Mirani.
The police personnel acquitted today include Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Durrani, masood Sharif, Rai Tahir and others who were prosecution witnesses in this case. [1]
[edit] Murtaza's supporters cling to the chopper carrying his body
The pilot of one of the helicopters which carried the body of deceased Murtaza Bhutto felt difficulty in lifting the chopper as a number of supporters of Murtaza from Lyari, Karachi clung to the base rod in a bid to board the machine. While the helicopter managed to lift off, many of the visibly moved supporters of Murtaza fell down but one of them remained clung to the helicopter. The helicopter flew up to sea side and then returned and landed at Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim where the youth clinging to helicopter's rod fell down and the chopper flew away
