"Her killing threatens Pakistan's existence because she was very popular, especially in the Sindh region," Anwar Iqbal, Washington correspondent for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, told United Press International.

Bhutto was killed Thursday along with as many as 20 other people during a political rally in Rawalpindi.

Various media, including Ammar Turabi, United Press International's regional consultant in Islamabad, and Pakistan state television reported Bhutto's death. There was an explosion at the rally, but CNN and India's NDTV, citing members of Bhutto's Pakistan's People's Party, said she was shot dead. There has been no claim of responsibility yet, but it is widely believed the killer belonged to al-Qaida or an affiliated Islamist militant group.

Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October after years of self-imposed exile in London and the United Arab Emirates. Her return was marred by a suicide bomber in Karachi who struck her welcome-home parade, killing as many as 140 people.

Although militancy is a growing phenomenon in Pakistan, it has not had widespread appeal, Iqbal said. He said Bhutto's killing was likely to increase resentment against the group.

"Al-Qaida was never popular in Pakistan," he said. "It is about time people come out on the streets and protest at what has happened."

Widely popular yet controversial for the corruption during her time in power, Bhutto was expected to return to power in elections scheduled for Jan. 8. Those elections may now be postponed, Iqbal said.

"The government is now in a very difficult situation," he said.

The assassination puts President Pervez Musharraf, who quit the military in order to hold on to his political post, in a bind; according to Indian television accounts from those at the scene of the killing, many people blamed the military and Musharraf for Bhutto's death.

Musharraf has held on to power despite widespread protest against his rule. He has made many enemies by backing the U.S.-led war on terrorism. While many in his country say he has bent over backward to accommodate the Americans, critics in the United States say Musharraf hasn't done enough to crack down on al-Qaida and the Taliban -- including, possibly, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar -- who are present in his country.

Iqbal said Musharraf would likely need to mobilize public sentiment against al-Qaida and thereby bolster his own hand.

"He needs to mobilize the people against al-Qaida," he said.

It is unclear at this juncture what form any anti-militant operation will take, but the United States has been pressuring Musharraf to crack down on rebels operating in the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. U.S. forces have stopped short of entering Pakistan in large numbers to take on al-Qaida and the Taliban because of the political ramifications of such a move in Pakistan, but there may be less compunction now.

Militants are likely to be buoyed by Bhutto's death. While they have tried to kill Musharraf several times, Bhutto is their highest-profile victim. The killing also sends the message that despite reports to the contrary, the worldwide Islamist militant movement is alive and well.

What does this mean for Pakistan in the long run? Precious little.

The country's powerful military has never been shy about taking charge when it feels instability is near, and Pakistan's history of political violence shows that in South Asia even violent deaths change little.

The country has been ruled by the military for more than half of the 60 years since its creation from British India in 1947. Its first prime minister, Liaqat Ali Khan, was killed in 1951. Between 1947 and 1958 the country saw seven prime ministers. The military took over for the first time in 1958 and ruled until 1971 when Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, took office. He was hanged in 1979 by Gen. Ziaul Haq, who ruled the country until his own death in a plane crash in 1998.

Elections that year brought Benazir Bhutto to power; she held office twice over the next 11 years. The country held regular elections until 1999, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was deposed in a coup by Musharraf. (Sharif recently returned to Pakistan from forced exile in Saudi Arabia; a court said he could not contest next month's elections. By all accounts, a rally he was addressing was also targeted Thursday, but Sharif was safe.)

Pakistanis are used to political instability, but Bhutto's killing confronts them with a major problem: domestic terrorism. Whether the electorate, military or the government can successfully combat the Islamists while keeping in check the allure radicalism presents to the country's youth is a question for which even the $5 billion in U.S. anti-terror aid to Pakistan has no answers.

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