Times of India : One suicide bomber slipped away: Report

One suicide bomber slipped away: Report

October 21, 2007

KARACHI: Former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto said on Friday she had named three persons (responsible for the blasts) in a letter written to President Pervez Musharraf on October 16 but refused to identify them in public. She also claimed that one of them is being "watched" by the authorities. Media reports today suggested that senior intelligence and army officials were among the three persons.

Doctors at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi are reconstructing the mangled face of the suspected suicide bomber, who appeared in his 20’s, and samples from the severed head have been sent for DNA tests, TV reports said.

Meanwhile, a leading daily claimed that four bombers had arrived in Karachi from Waziristan recently to target Bhutto when she flew into the city on October 18. The newspaper quoted sources as saying that home department and police of Sindh province had been informed about these attackers. It claimed there was another suicide bomber at the scene of Friday’s attack but "slipped away".

Suicide bombings have multiplied since the army stormed the Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad to crush an armed student movement in July. The United States and its allies want to see elections go-ahead in Pakistan in the hope that a moderate, pro-Western government will emerge to fight the al-Qaida and Taliban threat and help Western forces stabilize Afghanistan.

For now, Bhutto has put on ice plans to go to Larkana, a town 240 km northeast of Karachi, to pray at the tomb of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first popularly elected PM, who was deposed and executed after another military coup three decades ago.

Pakistan's government denied involvement in the attack, while sporadic violence flared in parts of Karachi. "I think we should stop playing blame games. The government provided the best possible security to her," deputy information minister Tariq Azim said. Angry Bhutto supporters burnt tyres, threw rocks at cars and forced shops to shut in some Karachi neighbourhoods.