Islamabad: Minutes before she was killed, former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto wanted to speak to PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif whose supporters had been attacked in Rawalpindi on the same day.
     
Bhutto was assassinated on December 27 shortly after she addressed an election rally at the historical Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
     
As she left the venue in her bulletproof vehicle, Bhutto said she wanted to speak to Sharif, but then she heard the 'Jeay Bhutto' slogans from her supporters and decided to wave to them from the car's sunroof.

Bhutto's political secretary Nahid Khan reportedly told a mourner that the former premier initially sat in the vehicle and asked for her mobile phone, the Dawn newspaper reported on Monday.

Bhutto said she wanted to call Sharif as she had just learnt that five of his supporters had been killed in an attack as he was also campaigning in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Khan said when Bhutto fell inside the vehicle after the attack, she thought she had lost her balance and slipped.

"I said 'Bismillah' when BB almost fell into my lap but then to my horror I saw blood oozing out of her head and she was almost unconscious," Khan recalled.

Bhutto had called Sharif a day before her assassination to discuss with him the government's alleged plan for 'massive rigging' in the January 8 general elections.

The two leaders had a long telephonic conversation and talked about evolving a joint strategy to foil the rigging plans. She had also sent flowers and a cake to Sharif on his birthday on December 25.

Source : PTI