The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, just seconds before she was assassinated leaving an election rally near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images



Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon by a gunman at close range, quickly followed by a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide attacker.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Ms. Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, was declared dead by doctors at a hospital close to the park where the rally had been taking place. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Amid the confusion after the explosion, the site was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground. Pakistani television cameras captured images of ambulances pushing through crowds of dazed and injured people at the scene of the assassination.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Ms. Bhutto had been warned by the government before her return to Pakistan that she faced threats to her security. In October, Ms. Bhutto survived another deadly suicide attack in the southern city of Karachi on the day she returned from years of self-imposed exile abroad to contest the parliamentary elections.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images