Songs Of Blood And Sword: A Daughter'S Memoir (26 page)

In September, Murtaza and Della met again in Geneva. He was there to meet Sheikh Zayed, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, another friend of Zulfikar’s. Murtaza went into the meeting on 13 September imagining that Zayed would agree to bankroll the PLA. He left disappointed. Murtaza returned to the hotel visibly angry and told Della that Zayed disagreed with the road the brothers had taken. ‘He told Mir that he should return to London and start a family. Zayed told him that “Time will pay off and things will change. Be patient.” Mir was furious.’
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The sheikh had refused to fund the PLA, giving Murtaza a token sum of $10,000. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ Murtaza said, flicking his hand at the envelope. Della tried to calm him down; she agreed with the sheikh – she wanted Murtaza to have nothing more to do with an armed liberation army, no matter what the cause. ‘Get up, let’s go for a walk,’ Murtaza told Della, rushing her out of the hotel. He took Della to the Rolex store and bought her a watch. ‘This is from the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi,’ he told her. Murtaza didn’t want the man’s money; his mission didn’t need it.

‘He felt he had no choice about relocating to Kabul,’ Murtaza’s college friend Milbry Polk, who now runs Wings World Quest, an NGO that supports women explorers, tells me. ‘He had to put a lot of his own personal dreams on hold . . . he had to make a cut in his life – in his lifestyle, with his friends, his mobility. It was an extreme choice, but he probably couldn’t have lived with himself had he not done it. He was a good son, a good Pakistani, and the leadership burden was on him.’
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Before returning to Kabul, where the foundations of the PLA were almost ready, Murtaza made one last stop in London. He saw two of his close friends from college. He knew he
would not to be able to travel to the United Kingdom for some time. There were rumours that General Zia had directed Pakistan’s International Airline pilots to divert their planes to Pakistan if either of the Bhutto brothers were on board. There was an element of danger everywhere.

In London, Murtaza met his college roommate, Bill White, who was disturbed by the marked change in his friend. ‘The last time, we met, Mir said, “I don’t know if we’ll see each other for a long, long time,”’ Bill tells me, speaking slowly in his deep baritone voice. ‘And I told him, “What are you talking about?” Mir replied that he didn’t know if I’d want to see him. “I may do things you don’t approve of,” he said. “What I’m going to do is fairly dangerous, plus I might not live that long.” I told him that was ridiculous. I told him we’d keep in touch. I’d always had the sense that in twenty or thirty years’ time we’d be in touch, see each other’s families and keep notes on each other’s lives. As I was leaving, Mir said, “Really? You think we’ll be able to keep in touch?”’
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Another friend, Magdalena, had a similarly ominous farewell. ‘I saw him last in London in 1979 and it was before we knew that he was going to be in Kabul and he said to me, “Don’t think I’m not a good friend if I can’t be in touch often.”’
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Magda stops mid-sentence and begins to cry. She never saw Murtaza again; neither did Bill.

‘Mir took Zia’s actions very personally,’ Bill tells me, trying to find a way to explain his friend’s sudden new life plans. Kabul is a bit of a tricky subject these days. How do you tell your best friend’s daughter, whom you’ve never met, why her father changed everything – changed his life, his sense of peace, his family’s security – to lead an armed guerrilla movement? ‘He believed Zia crossed a line when he took Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s life and he believed he had to pay for that. Mir was a risk taker. For someone who grew up in a privileged environment, he was pretty tough.’
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On 17 September 1979, one day before his twenty-fifth birthday, Murtaza flew back to Kabul. It would be his home for the next three years.

Khurshid and Shahnawaz Bhutto with their children. Zulfikar is wearing a suit and standing next to his father

Nusrat as a young woman in Bombay

Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with John F. Kennedy in the White House

Zulfikar with his Indian counterpart, Indira Gandhi

The Bhutto children, Murtaza,Benazir, Sanam and Shahnawaz,in China with Chou en-Lai

Shahnawaz, Benazir, Murtaza, Sanam, Nusrat and Zulfikar in Northern Pakistan in one of the last family photographs taken of the Bhuttos all together

Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with Chief of Army Staff General Zia standing behind him, watching an army parade in Islamabad

General Zia ul Haq

A portrait taken of Murtaza around the time he embarked on his undergraduate studies at Harvard