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'I am what the terrorists most fear'

Source: PTI
January 07, 2008 19:27 IST
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In one of her last media interviews, slain former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto had voiced fear that she may be targeted by terrorists and went on to urge United States president George W Bush to reverse the pro-Musharraf policies which were 'breaking up' Pakistan.

"I am what the terrorists most fear," she had said in the interview with Parade magazine, "a female political leader fighting to bring modernity to Pakistan. Now they're trying to kill me".

Asked what she would you like to tell president Bush, the Pakistan People's Party leader had said that she would say propping up the Pervez Musharraf government, which is infested with radical Islamists, is only hastening disaster.

"I would say, 'Your policy of supporting dictatorship is breaking up my country.' I now think Al Qaeda can be marching into Islamabad in two to four years".

Coverage: Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

The interview with Parade magazine, which is distributed as an insert with many American newspapers like the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, was recorded just days before the former premier was killed in an attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.

The magazine went to print on December 21.

Bhutto had also said the Pakistani army decided to overthrow her in 1996 after she announced plans to crack down on terrorism.

She had said she first heard the name of Osama bin Laden in 1989, when he sent $10 million to the Inter-Services Intelligence to help it overthrow her first government.

"I was ignorant of the extremist war of these new radical Islamists until my second term".

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