ISLAMABAD - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack at a campaign rally.
The killing comes less than two weeks after President Pervez Musharraf lifted his controversial state of emergency.
Here is a chronology of key events in Pakistan's crisis:
March 9: Musharraf asks Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to resign over allegations of misconduct. Chaudhry refuses.
March 10-12: Lawyers hold nationwide protests, the first in a series of demonstrations.
March 26: First joint protests organised by the parties of exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
May 12-13: Forty-three people are killed as government supporters prevent Chaudhry from attending a rally in the southern port city of Karachi.
July 3-10: Pakistani troops besiege the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad, then storm the building a week later. More than 100 people die during the course of the crisis.
July 20: Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry and quashes the charges against him.
Bhutto and Musharraf hold secret meeting in Abu Dhabi on a possible power-sharing deal to sideline Sharif.
Aug 23: Supreme Court rules Sharif can return from exile.
Sept 10: Sharif touches down in Islamabad from London but is sent back to exile in Saudi Arabia just four hours later.
Sept 18: Musharraf's lawyer says he will step down as army chief if re-elected.
Sept 28: Pakistan's Supreme Court rules Musharraf can run for re-election while keeping his role as army chief, throwing out a raft of legal challenges.
Oct 6: Musharraf wins presidential election with an overwhelming majority in parliament, after the poll was boycotted by the opposition.
Oct 18: Bhutto returns to Karachi from Dubai after eight years in self-exile. Two suicide bombers attack her homecoming parade, killing 139 people.
Nov 3: Musharraf imposes state of emergency, replaces Chaudhry, suspends the constitution and arrests key opposition figures, citing Islamic extremism and judicial interference.
- Nov 4: Police crack down on the opposition. The United States, a key Musharraf ally, voices concern.
- Nov 7: US President George W. Bush issues a "very frank" call to Musharraf to hold fair elections and step down as head of the army.
- Nov 11: Musharraf says parliament will be dissolved on November 15 and elections should be held by early January.
- Nov 12: Bhutto rules out further power-sharing talks with Musharraf.
- Nov 13: Bhutto for the first time urges Musharraf to resign and says she will never serve under him as prime minister.
- Nov 15: A senior official says Musharraf will leave the army by December 1.
- Nov 16: Musharraf swears in the interim government.
- Nov 19: The Supreme Court, now staffed with compliant judges, swats away five of six challenges against Musharraf's re-election as president.
- Nov 20: Authorities announce January 8 as the date for general elections and begin freeing more than 5,500 political prisoners.
- Nov 22: The Supreme Court dismisses the final challenge to Musharraf's re-election. The Commonwealth suspends Pakistan for violating the grouping's fundamental values.
- Nov 23: The Supreme Court rules that Musharraf was justified in imposing emergency rule.
- Nov 24: Twin suicide bombings in Rawalpindi kill at least 20 including security force members.
- Nov 25: Sharif returns to Pakistan.
- Nov 26: Bhutto and Sharif file their nomination papers for the election. Musharraf's office announces he will resign from the army and take a new oath as a civilian leader.
- Nov 28: Musharraf hands over the baton of army command to his successor General Ashfaq Kiyani in a full military ceremony.
- Nov 29: Now in civilian clothes, Musharraf swears a new oath for a second term as president.
- Dec 15: Musharraf lifts emergency rule.
- Dec 22: At least 50 people are killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan targeting a former interior minister and close ally of Musharraf.
- Dec 27: Bhutto is killed in a suicide attack.
12/27/2007 16:52 GMT