Special report: Pakistani Situation

    ISLAMABAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was shot by her attacker before he blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack Thursday outside a campaign rally, police said Thursday.

    Bhutto, 54, died in a hospital after a suspected suicide rocked her election rally at the Liaquat Bagh park in Rawalpindi, some 30 km south from Islamabad.

    The latest reports from the state-run PTV said at least ten people were killed in the blast.

    However, a private TV, ARJ, reported that at least 20 were killed and another 42 were injured in the blast.

    Bhutto, leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party, served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan on Oct. 18 after an eight-year exile.

    Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is holding an emergency meeting at the presidency Thursday with top government officials after the assassination of Bhutto, state-run television reported.

    Musharraf appealed to the nation to remain peaceful after the death of Bhutto "so that the evil designs of terrorists can be defeated," state TV said.