Benazir tried to save Maqbool Bhat’s life

Srinagar, July 17: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, before her assassination, was very keen for an amicable resolution of Kashmir dispute, between India and Pakistan, favouring soft borders and free trade between the two countries.
This has been disclosed by the well-known journalist and author, Karan Thapar, in his book ‘Devil’s Advocate- The Untold Story’.
The book comprising memoirs of Karan Thapar will be released on Wednesday in New Delhi.
Thapar, in his book, suggests that Benazir favoured a joint parliament for the two divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir and adds that “General Pervez Musharraf’s concept of self-governance and joint management drew heavily upon her thinking.”
Thapar makes another big disclosure in his book: Benazir’s attempt to save the life of JKLF ideologue Mohammad Maqbool Bhat.
Benazir, Thapar says, wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi pleading for saving the life of Maqbool Bhat.
“In 1984, when Maqbool Butt was about to be hanged, Benazir wrote to Indira Gandhi, pleading he be saved. ‘Why are you doing that?’ I asked. I couldn’t understand her need to write the letter. I thought it was a mistake. ‘I have to, Karan,’ she explained. ‘I’ve lived through my father’s hanging and I know the trauma it created for the family. I can’t watch someone else go through the same misery without doing what I can to prevent it.’ Indira Gandhi never replied but Benazir didn’t hold that against her,” writes Thapar.
As a Bhutto daughter, Benazir was always conscious of her family’s similarity with the Gandhis. After Sanjay Gandhi’s plane crash and Indira’s assassination in the early 1980s were followed by her brother Shahnawaz’s mysterious death, she once commented that there was a curse on both families.
At the time, Rajiv’s killing and her own were still far in the future. Today, there can be no doubt about that curse.