[Guest post by DRJ]

Former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan yesterday amid cheering crowds at the Karachi airport but her homecoming was marred by suicide bombs that killed 136 people and wounded 250.

Bhutto, who has previously been criticized by Islamists for her secular beliefs, claims there were 3 or 4 suicide bombers representing the Taliban, al Qaeda, and Karachi interests who were behind the bombing:

“Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, her return from exile shattered by a suicide attack that killed up to 136 people, blamed militants Friday for trying to kill her and said she would not “surrender our great nation” to them.

She said she had prior warning that Taliban and al-Qaida suicide squads would try to kill her upon her return, and that she alerted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in an Oct. 16 letter. She said there were two attackers in the deadly bombing; her security guards, she said, found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest.

“There was one suicide squad from the Taliban elements, one suicide squad from al-Qaida, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taliban and a fourth group, I believe, from Karachi,” she in a news conference.”

Bhutto did not blame the government in the attack but she expressed suspicions about some elements:

“She did not blame the government, but said it was suspicious that streetlights failed after sunset Thursday when her convoy was inching its way through the streets of Karachi. She said the phones were down, making it difficult to have the lights restored. “I’m not accusing the government but certain individuals who abuse their positions and powers,” she said. “We were scanning the crowd with the floodlights, but it was difficult to scan the crowds because there was so much darkness.”

In a separate interview with Paris Match, Bhutto blamed “dignitaries” linked to Gen. Zia-ul Haq, the Pakistani leader who jailed her several times before his death in a mysterious plane crash in 1988.”

Bhutto’s current support for Musharraf and the US is a serious threat to Islamists. In the long run, I doubt that killing 136 and wounding 250 will endear those who planned this attack to many Pakistanis.

— DRJ