Former Pakistani Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack after speaking at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on December 27, 2007. Bhutto's attacker shot her in the neck and chest and then blew himself up next to her car. She was 54. Bhutto is shown addressing 25,000 graduates, alumni and guests at the 338th Harvard University Commencement in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a June 8, 1989 file photo. (UPI Photo/Don West/FILES)

Bhutto was assassinated Thursday following a rally in Rawalpindi. In a CNN interview before she returned to Pakistan from exile in October she was aware of threats against her from extremist groups, including al-Qaida.

"I know the dangers are there and I am prepared to take the risks," she said in the interview.

Bhutto said, in seeking re-election, she was "standing up for democracy, moderation and hope for all the people of Pakistan" who she said are "poor, miserable and really quite desperate."

Bhutto said the execution of her father was one of the worst times in her life but she learned from that "one has to stand up for the principles they believe in."