(London) Times : On-the-spot: Bhutto supporters blame Musharraf for blasts

On-the-spot: Bhutto supporters blame Musharraf for blasts

Chief Foreign Commentator of The Times says last night's deadly attack on Benazir Bhutto's supporters will put pressure on Pakistan's military leader

Bronwen Maddox, Karachi | October 19, 2007

The shock has not yet sunk in in Karachi but there are signs that, by targeting Benazir Bhutto, the extremists have brought her a huge surge in support. The attacks may well consolidate the claim of her Pakistan People's Party, the party of the poor, to be the dominant force in the country's politics.

The city of 14 million people, swollen by a million Bhutto followers, is deserted this morning. Schools are shut, shops shuttered, and the six-lane highways that usually ring with the horns of stationary cars are completely empty.

At the Jinnah Memorial Hospital, the city's largest, as relatives tried to identify two dozen unclaimed bodies and torsos, most expressed huge anger against the Government. Some accused the intelligence agencies of planting the bombs; others blamed President Musharraf for not protecting the former Prime Minister.

The cousin of Mohammed Varis, a PPP worker and Bhutto bodyguard during the procession, said he believed the bomb had been placed in a police car by government agents. Over his relative's unconscious body, he held up his security guard T-shirt, in the red, green and black colours of the PPP, displaying his pass, which vowed to "lay down my life for Benazir Bhutto". He said that 900 Benazir followers had come from Dadu, in Sindh Province, "but we never expected there to be an attack".

Mazar Khan, also from Dadu, said: "How come the Government kept warning us there would be a suicide bomb? They knew it because they did it." Another neighbour added: "Musharraf - he is a usurper, an oppressor, not a Muslim."

Benazir Bhutto's first response, shortly after the blast, suggests that she will hold back from direct criticism of General Musharraf. She called for the sacking of the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, a civilian minister, making a careful distinction between Musharraf and his men.

But the blast will put huge pressure on Musharraf. He will be seen as a military leader who has lost control of rising terrorism. As well as huge international condemnation of the blast, there were clear signs that other governments, particularly the US, do not want him to call a state of emergency. The Bush Administration called on Pakistan to carry on with the parliamentary elections due by January. Bhutto's party put out a statement today saying that she would carry on to fight the elections.

Musharraf will also come under huge pressure from the US and Britain to let back Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League, the conservative mainstream party, and who has been in exile in London. Sharif is in Saudi Arabia, where Musharraf sent him forcibly when he too tried to return home last month.

Analysts speculate that Musharraf might not have enough support in the army any more to order a state of emergency, even if he wanted to.