From Abraham Lincoln to Mahatma Gandhi: 10 world leaders who were tragically assassinated

Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and the 16th President of the United States. He led United States through American Civil War, defeating confederate states. He played a major role in the abolition of slavery. He was assassinated in 1861 by Jhon Wilkes Booth a Confederate sympathiser while watching a play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd.

Martin Luther King Jr was an American Baptist Minister, civil rights activist, a political philosopher. He was the leader of civil rights movement for the right to vote, desegregation, labour rights and other civil rights for the people of colour. He was fatally shot in 1968 in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassinator was James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty and sentenced to 99 years in prison. However Kings family and others believe that the assassination was a corporated conspiracy by the US government, mafia and Memphis Police. This was one of the four major assassination along with assassination of Jhon F Kennedy, Malcom X, and Robert F Kennedy.

Mahatma Gandhi, was an anti colonial activist, lawyer, political ethicist and freedom fighter. He employed non violence to lead a campaign against the British Colonial rule. Tragically he was shot dead by a right wing hindu activist Nathuram Godse on 1948.

Franz Ferdinand was not a civil rights activist or political leader, but he was the presumptive heir to the Austro Hungarian throne. In 1914 he along with his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This set off a chain reaction such as Austria declared war on Serbia, Russia joined war to protect Serbia, Germany declared war on France and Russia and lastly Britain declared war on Germany. These ultimately culminated into the bloody World War I or the Great War , involving 30 countries, millions of armies, with modern weapons like machine guns, tanks, fighter planes and poison gas.

In the history of Kenyan freedom struggle Dedan Kimathi is the most revered figure. He led the Mau Mau revolutions against the British Colonial rule in 1950s. He was a teacher and then later joined the armed revolution for the independence of Kenya. He was shot in the leg by the British colonial forces and then captured. After a brief trial under the British Colonial rule, he was executed.

Indira Gandhi was Indian Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984 untill her assassination. She was a charismatic leader and oversaw many major milestone in the history of Independent India, like Green Revolution, Nationalisation of Indian Banks and India's first Nuclear Weapon Program. But her rule is mostly remembered for the declaration of Emergency after being accused of electoral malpractice, which led to severe backsliding of democracy and civil rights. She was assassinated by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in her residence. This was a retaliation of the Operation Blue star, a military operation she had ordered in June 1984 to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

John F Kennedy was the 35th American President and served from 1961 untill his assassination in 1963. His term was famous for Cuban Crisis, he diplomatically negotiated with Soviet Russia to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba. In November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while riding in an open-top motorcade. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for his murder but was shot dead after two days by nightclub owner Jack Ruby before standing trial. The Warren Commission (1964) concluded that Oswald acted alone, but many Americans still believe there may have been a conspiracy involving other parties.

Patrice Lumumba was a Congolese anti colonial leader and the first Prime Minister of Democratic Republic of Congo. He fought for independence against Belgian in 1960, he is remembered as a pan african hero. Soon after independence Belgian forces promoted cessationism in the mineral rich territory of Katanga, he sought help from the USSR, that alerted the US. Even the United Nations refused to help. He was later captured by Belgian and American inteligence forces and unavoidably sentenced to death. His body was dissolved in acid, and his remains were hidden. Only his tooth was returned to Congo in 2022, as part of formal apology by Belgium.

Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister and the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority nation. She attempted to modernise a patriarchal and orthodox Pakistan and promote democracy. After years of exile, she returned to Pakistan in 2007 to contest elections but was assassinated on December 2007, in Rawalpindi during a political rally. A suicide bomber attacked her convoy, and she was fatally injured, and later succumbed to those injuries. Five suspects linked to the Pakistani Taliban were arrested but later acquitted in 2017 due to lack of evidence.

Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt who succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser and led the country from 1970 to 1981. He is best remembered for signing the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1978, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize but also angered many in the Arab world. On October 1981, during a military parade in Cairo commemorating the Yom Kippur War, Sadat was assassinated by Islamist extremists within the Egyptian army who opposed his peace deal with Israel. The attackers were immediately captured at the scene.In April 1982, Islambouli and three others were executed by firing squad after being convicted by a military court.