What the papers say on Bhutto's death

The quiet period for news between Xmas and New Year has been blown away with yetserday's assassination in Pakistan and this mornings newspapers are filled with reports and analyis on the events in Rawalpindi.

The leader writers across all the papers are focusing on the events

Let democracy be Bhutto's memorial says the Mail

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto once again exposes the gaping fault lines which lie below the surface of political life in Pakistan.

Nation on the brink says the Mirror

In the difficult days ahead, President Pervez Musharraf and his generals will be tempted to put off the polls and launch a crackdown.
Musharraf must follow Ms Bhutto's brave example and find the courage to avoid a retreat into military rule.

Benazir's fight must go on says the Sun

let us remember that Bhutto, while a formidable force for good and a powerful ally, was not her divided country’s only potential saviour.The path to democracy is often painful. It took three decades of bloodshed before peace finally came to Northern Ireland.
Bhutto’s death may be the awful price Pakistan must pay to achieve the same end.

Pakistan is a more dangerous place says the Telegraph

In such circumstances, Gen Musharraf, who resigned last month as army chief but remains president, may decide to postpone or cancel parliamentary elections due on January 8.
If they are held, with Miss Bhutto murdered and the other political heavyweight, Nawaz Sharif, disqualified from running, they could well be rigged to favour the general's party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q).
The situation may deteriorate to the extent that the army decides once again to intervene, this time removing the author of the 1999 coup, Gen Musharraf.

A killing that reverberates far beyond Pakistan says the Indy

As the urgent words of tribute and warning showed yesterday, however, Ms Bhutto's assassination will reverberate far beyond her native land. The United States, and to a lesser extent Britain, had encouraged Ms Bhutto to return in the expectation that she would be Pakistan's next Prime Minister. They envisaged her as a moderating and pro-Western force in a country where Islamic extremism is never far from the surface. They hoped an electoral mandate would bring stability. At a time when the Taliban are advancing in Afghanistan, violence still plagues Iraq, and Iran's intentions are uncertain, new volatility in the region can be in no one's interests. Benazir Bhutto might not have been able, as she aspired, to save Pakistan for democracy, but now she will not have the chance.