KARACHI, Pakistan — Benazir Bhutto blamed al-Qaida and Taliban militants Friday for the assassination attempt against her that killed at least 136 people, and declared she would risk her life to restore democracy in Pakistan and prevent an extremist takeover.
The former premier presented a long list of foes who would like to see her dead — from loyalists of a previous military regime that executed her politician father to Islamic hard-liners bent on stopping a female leader from modernizing Pakistan.
“We believe democracy alone can save Pakistan from disintegration and a militant takeover,” Bhutto said less than 24 hours after bombs exploded near a truck carrying her in a festive procession marking her return from eight years of self-imposed exile.
“We are prepared to risk our lives and we are prepared to risk our liberty, but we are not prepared to surrender our great nation to the militants,” the pro-Western leader added.
Bhutto, who came home to lead her party in January parliamentary elections, said she had been warned before returning that Taliban and al-Qaida suicide squads would try to kill her, saying a “brotherly” nation provided her with a list of telephone numbers of suicide squads.
She said she warned of that threat in a letter Tuesday to Pakistan’s current military leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, with whom she has been negotiating a possible political alliance.
“There was one suicide squad from the Taliban elements, one suicide squad from al-Qaida, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taliban and a fourth — a group — I believe from Karachi,” she said.
Bhutto said it was suspicious that streetlights failed as her procession made its way from Karachi’s airport toward downtown Thursday night. She said cell phone service also was out.
Authorities said the assault bore the hallmarks of a Taliban-allied warlord and the al-Qaida terror network — with a man first throwing a grenade into the sea of people around Bhutto’s convoy and then blowing himself up with a bomb wrapped in bolts and other pieces of metal.
Pakistani television showed video of what it said was the severed head of the suspected bomber, an unshaven man in his 20s with curly hair and green eyes.
Bhutto disputed the government’s version of the attack, saying that there were two suicide bombers and that her security guards also had found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
