(London) Times : Benazir Bhutto 'was warned of bomb attack'

Benazir Bhutto 'was warned of bomb attack'

Times Online and Bronwen Maddox and Zahid Hussain, Karachi | October 19, 2007

Benazir Bhutto described today how she had received a warning just half an hour before last night's devastating attack on her homecoming procession that a suicide bomber would target the truck in which she was travelling.

More than 130 people were killed in two blasts that rocked Ms Bhutto's motorcade as it edged through hundreds of thousands of well-wishers in Karachi who had stayed up late into the night to welcome her back to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

In an interview with a French magazine only a few hours after the bombing, the former premier said that many of them were young policemen sent in to block the path of a suicide bomber after last night's warning was received by police and passed on to her entourage by the intelligence services.

But she nevertheless accused high-ranking members of Pakistan's intelligence services of being behind the attack, arguing that Islamic militants could not mount such a sophisticated attack "from a mountain cave".

Ms Bhutto, 54, has pledged to carry on with her political comeback and contest parliamentary elections in January at the head of her Pakistan People's Party, saying that her attackers "did not manage to decapitate the democracy movement".

Police said today that they had found the severed head of the bomber, a man of around 20 who had been carrying some 20kg of explosives, and were trying to identify him. The Interior Ministry said that the first blast had been caused by a hand grenade - although some of Ms Bhutto's supporters insisted that there had been a car bomb.

Ms Bhutto, uninjured, was whisked away to Bilawal House, her family residence in the port city, as her supporters fled in panic after the midnight attack.

There was no claim of responsibility. Police were investigating whether the bomb had links to tribal regions bordering Afghanistan which have become hotbeds of support for al-Qaeda and the Taleban. Militants linked to al-Qaeda, angered by Ms Bhutto's pledge to hunt down Osama bin Laden, had threatened to assassinate her only a few days ago.

In an interview with Paris Match in her Karachi residence, Ms Bhutto said: "The Talebs and the Islamists extremists cannot act alone. They can't commit their suicide attacks from a mountain cave. They need logistics, food, weapons and someone to supervise them."

She told the magazine that she knew "exactly" who wanted to kill her – former officials from the regime of the late General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who overthrew her father 30 years ago and oversaw the trial which ended in his execution.

"We should purge these elements still present in our secret services," she said. "Many of them took retirement but have been re-hired. Today they have a lot of power and I represent a danger to them: if I bring back democracy to the country, they will lose their influence."

Ms Bhutto rejected a suggestion that she might be held responsible for the attacks, given warnings from the government of General Pervez Musharraf that she would be a target for suicide bombers.

A relative of Ms Bhutto said that the former Prime Minister was “visibly shaken” when she arrived at her family compound in Karachi. Another friend said Ms Bhutto “came down and met everyone, and was very upset about those who had been killed”.

She later called for the head of the Intelligence Bureau, the civilian intelligence agency, to be dismissed.

Many of the dead and injured were policemen, part of the 20,000-strong force sent to guard Ms Bhutto’s ten-mile procession route. She had asked for extra protection, including the specially-designed and reinforced vehicle, but had refused to change her plans despite the obvious danger and threats from extremists. “It was an act of terrorism targeting Benazir Bhutto and aimed at sabotaging the democratic process,” said Aftab Sherpao, the Interior Minister.

General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister, condemned the attack. Political analysts speculated that General Musharraf, the military leader who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and who has resisted standing down as head of the Army, might be tempted to call a state of emergency.

The White House, which has backed Ms Bhutto’s power-sharing deal, was outraged. “Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process,” said Gordon Johndroe, President Bush’s foreign affairs spokesman.

Schools and colleges in Karachi have been ordered to remain closed and the city's six-lane highways were all but deserted today and businesses shut. Ms Bhutto’s plans to make her first big public speech early today at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, were scrapped.

The blasts came after a day of huge emotion. Standing wet-eyed on the steps of the aircraft that had brought her back to Pakistan after eight years of exile, dressed in the vivid green of the national flag, Ms Bhutto had pressed her fingers to her eyes and then raised her hands to the sky, as the crowd roared: “You will be the next leader of our country.”

In the first three hours of her journey from the airport, the bus crawled just three hundred yards as people climbed electricity poles and shop awnings. Buses had brought many supporters from her native Sindh province, but also from the Punjab, the North West Frontier province and the tribal areas beyond government control.

In today's interview, she said: "Just before the attacks happened, I was very happy. The procession was one enormous party, the atmosphere was joyful, people were dancing in the street, it was magnificent. For me, that was the real Pakistan.

"Those who exploded the bombs wanted to kill off the enthusiasm of the crowds who welcomed me yesterday afternoon. But, fortunately for Pakistan, they did not manage to decapitate the democracy movement."