Bhutto vows to go on despite deadly blasts

A defiant Benazir Bhutto donned a black armband Friday and vowed not to be deterred from her quest to bring civilian rule to Pakistan after a suicide attack on her homecoming celebration killed as many as 136 supporters.

Some Pakistanis wondered whether the former prime minister had jeopardized the safety of her followers by riding in a slow-moving convoy through streets choked with adoring crowds, particularly in light of death threats made against her by Islamic militants.

But there was a general sense here that Bhutto was a victim of the apparent assassination attempt, and not to blame.

President Pervez Musharraf, the military leader who is both Bhutto’s rival and prospective political ally, called her Friday to express condolences, a move suggesting that the two are trying to avoid antagonism. Both are seen as moderates who are friendly to the West, and have been urged by the Bush administration to reach a power-sharing accord that would serve as the basis for a peaceful transition to civilian rule.

“The attack was not on me. The attack was on what I represent. It was an attack on democracy and it was an attack on the very unity and integrity of Pakistan,” Bhutto told reporters. “We believe democracy alone can save Pakistan from disintegration and a militant takeover.”

Police said an initial investigation indicated that the attack was the work of a single assailant, who first hurled a grenade toward the steel-fortified vehicle carrying Bhutto and dozens of party members, then, only a few feet away, blew himself up in a thunderous explosion. The blast was close enough to singe the eyebrows of aides riding atop the vehicle on an open platform. Bhutto, who was in the vehicle at the time, was not injured.

At midday, debris was still scattered over the roadway and median strip at the site, about five miles from Karachi international airport, as investigators collected evidence, including ball bearings used to intensify the effect of the blast. Karachi traffic -- a typically wild mix of rattletrap cars and brightly painted trucks, motorbikes and motorized rickshaws -- roared by even as they worked.

Bhutto’s vehicle, its sides stained with soot and blood, was hauled away by crane.

The two-time prime minister returned Thursday after eight years of self-imposed exile to lead her party in parliamentary elections due early next year. She said she had been made aware of the death threats, including warnings that several suicide squads had been dispatched to kill her and her followers.

“There was one suicide squad from Taliban elements, one suicide squad from Al Qaeda, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taliban and a fourth, I believe a group from Karachi,” she told reporters Friday afternoon in her first public statement after the attack, thought to be the country’s worst suicide bombing ever.

Although Bhutto suggested that some officials in Musharraf’s administration had failed to do as much as they could have to protect her, she underscored that she did not blame the government for the attack. Both she and Pakistani authorities have said they believe Islamic militants are responsible.

Even before Bhutto’s description of the threats made before her homecoming, some Pakistanis expressed disillusionment with what they described as her grandiose political gestures.

“Innocent people die like sacrificial goats for the sake of politicians,” said writer Hanif Bhaty. “What have they given us in return?”

On Friday, the Muslim sabbath, the stunned families of victims began burying their dead, while at least a dozen sets of remains were still unclaimed at the city morgue. Morgue attendants said some remains were far too mangled to identify.

Many of the dead and injured were from out of town, bused to Karachi by Bhutto’s party for her arrival. Hospitals were besieged with calls from relatives, and families began making arrangements to bring their dead back to hometowns and villages for burial.

In many hospitals in poorer areas, family members are expected to provide comforts such as bedding and blankets, food and even medicine. Without loved ones at their side, many of the victims lay wrapped only in a single grimy sheet.

Some of the estimated 300 wounded in the blast, such as Rana Dilmeer Khan, lay wrapped in the black-red-and-green flags of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. His legs swathed in bandages, Khan said he had no regrets about coming out to welcome Bhutto.

“It was important to show our feeling for her as our leader,” he said. “I would do it again.”

At her news conference, Bhutto, 54, told how she had descended into the interior of the vehicle only moments before the attack. She said that after eight hours of standing on the stage atop the truck, her feet hurt and she wanted to change her shoes.

Inside the vehicle, she said, she and an aide began going over a speech she had planned to deliver at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, where the convoy was headed.

When the first and smaller of the two explosions struck, her aide wanted to go out onto the platform to see what had happened, but Bhutto held her back.

“I said, ‘Wait.’ Some people had been letting off firecrackers into the sky. . . . Something in my heart told me this was not a firecracker, it was a suicide attack.”

Manzoor Mughal, a senior Karachi police official, told the Associated Press that authorities had recovered a head thought to be the bomber’s and were carrying out tests. A bomber’s injuries usually include decapitation and generally differ from those of others in the vicinity because of the blast pattern.

Mughal estimated that the attacker had up to 45 pounds of explosives on his body, creating an explosion that incinerated at least two police vehicles.

Bhutto, however, told reporters that there had been at least two assailants, and that shots had been fired in an attempt to disable her vehicle. She was swiftly hustled from the scene by aides and security officials.

She said she grieved for those killed, but vowed she would not be deterred from making public appearances and leading her party in its election campaign.

“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,” she said.

Still, the attack left many wondering whether during the upcoming election campaign, large-scale rallies such as the one welcoming Bhutto would be too dangerous for everyone involved.

“It won’t be at all surprising if Benazir Bhutto henceforth avoids such gatherings, restricting herself to media conferences and indoor party events,” said Munir Ali, a columnist for the Dawn newspaper, adding that other politicians might do so too.

“Mass open-air rallies, however, are a part of Pakistan’s political tradition, and it is hard to envisage an election campaign from which they are altogether absent,” he said.

Speculation was rife that Musharraf might use the violence as a pretext for imposing martial law and delaying parliamentary elections, but his government said the balloting would proceed on schedule.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has been voted to another term as president, but the election is under court challenge. He has promised to quit his post as military chief, but only if the Oct. 6 vote giving him a new five-year term is upheld.

“We reiterate our confidence that, God willing, the political process in the country will continue,” said Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani. “Elections will be held on time.”

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laura.king@latimes.com