Millions have embraced the Bhutto cult but there are millions who never did, who think its founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was just a magician who invented a fake religion to mesmerize his followers.
 
 However, his believers say Bhutto was a dedicated leader with exceptional intellectual qualities who gave Pakistan its nuclear program, brought back the 93,000 soldiers captured by India after the humiliating defeat in the 1971 war, distributed feudal lands to the poor peasants, and liberated manual workers from the clutches of factory owners.
 
 From the military to the masses, from the top bureaucracy down to junior government clerks, and from powerful feudal lords to the poor country peasants, the whole country is clearly divided into two distinct factions -- one that loves the Bhuttos; and another that hates them.
 
 Those who hate them always tried to destroy them and their ideology by any means possible. They hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto -- the first elected prime minister of Pakistan and the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party -- but that did not satisfy them. They went on to persecute the Bhutto family and their followers.
 
 Bhutto’s daughter Benazir and wife Nusrat were arrested and placed in solitary confinement, and his son Shahnawaz was murdered under mysterious circumstances. But all this could not diminish Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s popularity, even in death.
 
 When Benazir Bhutto returned from exile in 1986, she was welcomed by a dancing, singing crowd of one million people chanting slogans like “May Bhutto live as long as the sun and stars exist.”
 
 In Pakistan there is intense love for the Bhuttos, and also intense hate for them. Their lovers and haters are both unbelievably mad people. Over the years, the intensity of their emotions has been manifested through incredible feats.
 
 While one group wants them to live forever, other groups want to see the last politically active member of the Bhutto family dead. And now Bhutto-haters have acquired new allies: the Pakistani Taleban from Waziristan and Al-Qaeda militants from the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 
 On October 6, when Ms. Bhutto was preparing to return to Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, a militant tribal chief from the semi-autonomous region of South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, threatened her, saying his bombers were waiting in the wings to ‘welcome’ her when she returns to Pakistan. “My men will welcome Bhutto on her return. We do not accept General Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, because they only protect the U.S. interests and see things through its glasses.”
 
 Mehsud, who commands a 5,000-strong private army of tribal militants, is a ruthless warlord of the mountainous region of northwest Pakistan. He is known to have close links with the Afghan Taleban, their leader Mullah Omar, and Al-Qaeda militants. He was greatly inspired by the Taleban ideology and frequently visited Afghanistan as a volunteer to join in the Taleban’s drive for the enforcement of Islamic law (shariah) in the Waziristan region.
 
 Mehsud is responsible for many deadly attacks on the security forces and recently kidnapped 300 Pakistan Army soldiers and beheaded some to show his fury over the Musharraf government’s operation against the Red Mosque of Islamabad. He is demanding the withdrawal of the security forces from South Waziristan and the release of his captured men in exchange for the soldiers’ freedom.
 
 Despite his denials, Mehsud is being blamed by many for the devastating bomb attack on Ms. Bhutto’s convoy in Karachi on October 18, just a few hours after she returned to the country. She survived the assassination attempt, but over 140 innocent people died and 550 were wounded.
 
 Ms. Bhutto believes that some hardcore elements from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistan Army also played a significant role in orchestrating the assassination attempt.
 
 Eight hours before boarding her flight from Dubai to Karachi, she wrote an email to UPI editor at large, Arnaud De Borchgrave, saying, “I have been informed that Baitullah Mehsud, an Afghan (sic -- he is actually a Pakistani Pushtun), Hamza Bin Laden, an Arab, and a Red Mosque militant have been sent to kill me. I wrote to (President Pervez) Musharraf telling him that if something happened, then I wanted these three held responsible -- the people who I think are behind them. I have also left a copy of the letter, in case something happens (to me), but I expect all to go smoothly.”
 
 And then a day after the carnage, talking to The Times of London, Ms. Bhutto estimated that no fewer than four different groups sought to kill her on the day she returned. “There was one suicide squad from the Taleban elements; one suicide squad from Al-Qaeda; one suicide squad from the Pakistani Taleban; and a fourth -- a group, I believe, from Karachi,” she said.
 
 And now Ms. Bhutto has received a new death threat. Senator Farooq Naik, Bhutto’s lawyer, said he had received a two-page handwritten letter in Urdu from an unidentified person threatening to kill her “by any means.” The writer claimed to be a friend of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the head of suicide-bombers in Pakistan.
 
 Those who want to kill Bhutto should know that people die but ideologies do not. The Zulfikar Ali Bhutto legend is an ideology that can not be killed.
 
 At this critical juncture, those who are seeking to assassinate Benazir Bhutto should reflect upon the repercussions of their plot, since it would further polarize Pakistani society, if it succeeded.