Jawab Deyh ( 2/4) Col. Rafi ud Din The last 323 days of (Shaheed) Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

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muradlaghari
September 21, 2009

According to the orders, Bhutto Sahib was to be executed on the night of 3-4 April, 1979, in the presence of Inspector of Jails. Chaudhry Nazeer Akhtar - who was present at the Rawalpindi Jail since morning on April 3rd. A stretcher had been arranged keeping in view Mr. Bhuttos physical condition because of the hunger strike that he had been on. Arrangements had been made for a few petromax lamps as the night was extremely dark and there were thick clouds on the horizon.

The following officials entered the security ward at 1:35 a.m:

1) - Jail Superintendent, Mr. Yar Mohammad
2) - Security Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rafi-ud-Din
3) - Magistrate First Class, Mr. Bashir Ahmad Khan
4) - Jail Doctor, Mr. Sagheer Hussain Shah
5) Deputy Superintendent Jail, Khawaja Ghulam Rasool

The officials entered Mr. Bhuttos cell. Bhutto Sahib was awake and was resting on the mattress. Magistrate Mr. Bashir Ahmad Khan asked him whether he wanted to leave any will. Bhutto Sahib remained quiet. He had turned yellow and pale and seemed very weak physically. His voice was barely audible because of weakness. He said something to the effect:

IhadtriedbutmythoughtsweresoupsetthatIco uldnotdoitIhaveburntit.

I went near him and said as I bent over him, Sir, are you able to walk or shall we pick you up? He did not answer me, but kept looking into my eyes. I again repeated my question after a while. He kept on looking at me like that and then said, I pity. (He said something else also but we could not understand what it was).

I again leaned forward and told him that I could not understand what he said. He repeated the same sentence again but I could not comprehend the last one or two words. I bent fully upon him and said, Excuse me Sir, but I did not understand what you said.

After a pause and with a lot of effort he said, Ipitymywifeleft.

He was in a very sad state at that time. May be what he wanted to say was that he could not walk but he also did not want to be carried. May be he was thinking that his wife could have given him support, had she been present.

The magistrate again came forward and asked him if he wanted to write a will. Bhutto Sahib remained quiet. The magistrate repeated his question. Bhutto Sahib replied, YesIwouldliketodictate.

At that moment, the time was up and the jail superintendent ordered the head warder to call his men inside and to lift up Mr. Bhutto. Four warders entered the ward. Two of them grabbed Mr. Bhuttos feet and two his arms, and lifted him up.

While he was being lifted, Mr. Bhutto said, Leave me.

Mr. Bhuttos back was almost touching the floor while he was being brought out of the cell. The lower part of his shirt got entangled in the warders shoes and I heard the sound of the shirt being torn. He was put on the stretcher in the lawn. His hands were placed on his stomach and he was handcuffed. In the meanwhile, helper Abdur Rehman came with the cup of tea that Bhutto Sahib had ordered before we had entered his cell. I wondered: "on the other side of the Jail houses wall, in the Prime Minister House, Mr. Bhutto used to get anything that he wished for, from anywhere in the world. And today he could not even fulfill his simple wish of having a cup of tea."

In the meanwhile Tara Masih (the executioner) came and placed a mask over his face. He was either having trouble breathing because of the mask or he was feeling pain because of the way his arms were twisted when he was handcuffed. He said, These. May be he wanted to say: " these are hurting me." I was very close to him. I had come so close to him, while avoiding the plank, that the distance between his face and my ears was not more than 1 or 2 feet. But I could not hear his last sentence.
At exactly 2:04 a.m. on 4th April, 1979, the executioner pressed the lever and Bhutto Sahib was executed. I climbed down the stairs to reach one level below to where Mr. Bhuttos body was hanging. I saw that Mr. Bhuttos body was moving slightly but that was because of the momentum of the body falling down. He was certainly dead at that time. I went and sat down near the Inspector of Jails on one of the chairs that had been placed near Mr. Bhuttos hanging body.
The scene of Bhutto Sahibs hanging body is something that I have never been able to forget. I shiver even now when I think of that moment again.
* Yahya Bakhtiar, was one of Mr. Bhuttos lawyers
** Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, another of Mr. Bhuttos lawyers.

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Jawab Deyh ( 2/4) Col. Rafi ud Din The last 323 days of (Shaheed) Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

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