Benazir Bhutto’s Mother Unhurt After Gunmen Fire on Procession

Unidentified gunmen Friday opened fire on a procession led by the mother of Pakistan’s populist opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, but she was not injured.

Nusrat Bhutto, who shares the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party with her daughter, was en route to the airport in the central city of Multan when the shooting began.

The gunmen injured 25 people, she told a news conference when she arrived in Lahore.

No one claimed responsibility, but she accused the opposition.

Benazir Bhutto, contacted at her Larkana home in the southern province of Sind, echoed her mother’s accusation that the shooting was ordered by a candidate of the rival Pakistan Muslim League.

“We are not afraid of these sorts of attacks on our life,” Benazir Bhutto said. “We will continue with our struggle. (Nusrat) Bhutto is like a mother of the people of Pakistan.”

The Bhuttos’ party and the Muslim League are thought to be the leading contenders for power in the Nov. 16 general elections.

President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq called the elections shortly before his death in an airplane crash Aug. 17. The Pakistan Muslim League includes most of the members of the national caretaker government, which is headed by Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

Zia came to power in 1977 after overthrowing Nusrat Bhutto’s husband, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a bloodless coup. Bhutto was executed in 1979 after being convicted of plotting to kill a political opponent.