Ashish Kumar Sen

The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has prompted calls for the US to rethink its Pakistan policies.

Two Sikh brothers were gunned down in their Indian restaurant in Richmond, California, on Thursday night in a random act of violence that left the police baffled.

Two months before she was assassinated Benazir Bhutto sent an e-mail to a US-based friend and adviser, saying that if she were killed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would be to blame.

The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has abruptly shifted the focus of presidential campaigns toward Pakistan and provided an opportunity for White House hopefuls to burnish their foreign policy credentials.

The Bush administration, which had played a key role in trying to forge an alliance between former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf in an effort to stem terrorism, on Thursday condemned Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi as a "cowardly act."

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has made no promises to lift a constitutional ban to allow Benazir Bhutto to serve a third term as prime minister and has absolutely no intention of reinstating justices of the Supreme Court whom he fired.