Bhutto convoy Blasts kill Scores

[Zirwaan Khan]

Bhutto convoy blasts kill scores




More than 100 people have been killed, including 20 police officers, after two bombs hit crowds greeting returning Pakistani ex-PM Benazir Bhutto.

Ms Bhutto was being driven in a convoy through crowded streets from Karachi airport to a rally to mark her homecoming after eight years in exile.

Ms Bhutto was not hurt but 100 other people were injured.

Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out to greet the former PM, amid a huge security presence.

Several Islamist groups including pro-Taleban militants had made threats against Ms Bhutto.




Police have cordoned off the scene of the blasts.

The area around a stage where she was due to give a speech to supporters has been evacuated.

Police say the bombings may have been suicide attacks.

The US White House condemned the blasts.

"Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Rushed away

The first explosion was relatively small but was followed by a much larger blast close to the front of Ms Bhutto's truck, which broke its windows and door.



"There was blood all around and it was chaos - and we couldn't understand what was happening - we didn't know where to go, what to do," said Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

It is not clear whether the bomber was on foot or in a vehicle.

Police vehicles took the main force of the blasts.

Most of the dead were members of the PPP. One cameraman for a local TV station was also killed.

Correspondents say Ms Bhutto may have been shielded from the blast by an overhang because she was sitting on top of the truck at the time.

The former prime minister was immediately rushed from the scene to her Karachi residency, according to contingency plans.

Power-sharing deal

Ms Bhutto flew in from Dubai earlier on Thursday, accompanied on the flight by about 100 PPP members.






At least 200,000 people turned out to greet her in what correspondents described as a carnival atmosphere, but the crowds slowed the progress of her convoy.

Ms Bhutto had been planning to make a speech at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says that despite being away for eight years, Ms Bhutto is still enormously popular as a scion of Pakistan's pre-eminent political dynasty.

Ms Bhutto left the country soon after Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup, but returned under a power-sharing deal with the president which could see her becoming prime minister again.

The US has backed the deal, amid concerns about the military's inability to defeat Islamist militants and Gen Musharraf's rising unpopularity.


KEY DATES
06 Oct: Presidential polls held
17 Oct: Supreme Court resumes hearing challenges to Musharraf candidacy
18 Oct: Benazir Bhutto's homecoming
15 Nov: Parliamentary term ends and general election must be held by mid-January

BBC

[Zirwaan Khan]

Bhutto defiant over bomb attack

Ms Bhutto was rushed from the scene to her Karachi residence

Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto has condemned the "dastardly and cowardly" suicide bomb attempt on her life.

In her first public comments since the attack, she said Pakistan was facing a battle for democracy with militants, and vowed to continue the struggle.

She said she had received prior warning that she would be targeted by four suicide bombers, and had passed this information to the government.

More than 130 people were killed in the attack on her convoy in Karachi.

Ms Bhutto, who had just returned to the country after eight years of self-imposed exile, was unhurt.

She told a news conference that before the bombing, shots had been fired at her vehicle to stop it. It was unclear whether the driver had been disabled by this gunfire, she said.


Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process
Gordon Johndroe
US presidential spokesman

Ms Bhutto also called for an inquiry into why the street lights along her route had been switched off. She said that while she was not blaming the government for the attacks, her security guards would have spotted suicide bombers if the street lights had been on.

"For me, the attack was not on an individual, the attack was on what I represent - it was an attack on democracy, an attack on the very unity and integrity of Pakistan," she said.

"What are the militants saying? They are saying it is not safe for peaceful people to gather together... this is a battle for democracy."

Ms Bhutto said those who had died in the attack - including 50 of her security guards - had made the "ultimate sacrifice" for democracy.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says Ms Bhutto is clearly attempting to portray herself as a brave fighter for democracy.

But he adds that there are bound to be questions about why, if she knew there would be a suicide bomb attack, she authorised such a slow public procession from the airport attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters.

Earlier, in an interview with Paris-Match magazine, she accused supporters of late military ruler Mohammed Zia ul-Haq of being behind the bomb attack against her.





Zia overthrew Ms Bhutto's father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, and had him hanged two years later. The military ruler died in mysterious circumstances in a plane crash in 1988.

Subsequent elections saw Ms Bhutto elected for the first of two stints as prime minister.

There were two explosions after midnight local time as Ms Bhutto and her entourage were moving slowly through a crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters.

Hundreds of people were injured and there were scenes of chaos, with the streets littered with bodies and body parts.

"The first blast was caused by a hand grenade. The second was the suicide attack," Manzoor Mughal, a senior police official told Reuters news agency.

"The attacker ran into the crowd and blew himself up."

He added that the head of the suspected bomber had been found, and it was estimated he had had 15-20kg (33-44lb) of explosives strapped to his body.

'War on terror'

There has so far been no claim of responsibility, but police say they are investigating whether the attack has links to tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, which are deep wells of support for al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

Ms Bhutto - who heads the country's largest political force, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - has professed her support for the US-led "war on terror", and said she was returning to Pakistan to combat extremism.

She escaped death or injury because she was travelling in an armoured truck.

Most of the dead were members of the PPP, although police vehicles took the main force of the blasts and more than 20 police officers are thought to have died. A cameraman for a local TV station was also killed.

Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of involvement.

Ms Bhutto's return followed a deal with Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf. The two could end up sharing power after elections in January.

On both occasions that Ms Bhutto served as prime minister, her government was prematurely dismissed by the president of the day under special powers.

She left Pakistan in April 1999 - shortly before Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup, and two years after her husband was jailed and a series of corruption charges were brought against her. She denies the charges.

BBC