Unrest in Pakistan builds as 2nd blast targets military

A suicide bomber struck a bus carrying air force personnel Thursday in central Pakistan, killing at least eight people in the second such attack on a military target in three days.

The bombing outside an air base south of the capital, Islamabad, coincided with new fighting between government forces and Islamic militants in the Swat valley, a previously quiet area of northern Pakistan that has been roiled by violence in the last week.

The growing unrest has heightened speculation that President Pervez Musharraf, awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether his election last month to another term in office was valid, might declare emergency rule or martial law.

The high court ruling was expected this week, but judges said Thursday that it would be put off until Nov. 12 -- three days before Musharraf is scheduled to be inaugurated for another term as president.

He has promised to relinquish his position as chief of the nation’s military before being sworn in, but the Pakistani leader is seen as unlikely to surrender his army role if the Supreme Court strikes down his Oct. 6 election by lawmakers.

The early-morning bombing outside the Sargodha air base by an assailant on a motorcycle left body parts strewed on the ground and the targeted bus charred and gutted. More than two dozen people were wounded, military officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the chief army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, called it an act of terrorism.

On Tuesday, a bomber blew himself up within half a mile of Musharraf’s office at the tightly guarded army headquarters in Islamabad’s sister city, Rawalpindi, killing eight people.

Elsewhere, provincial officials said as many as 70 Islamic militants had been killed Thursday in fighting in Swat, where a radical cleric has mustered a force of several thousand followers. Local officials and witnesses, however, cast doubt on that claim.

Thousands of Pakistani troops were deployed late last month in Swat, in the volatile North-West Frontier Province. However, it lies outside Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where most such clashes between troops and militants have taken place.

The pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Qazi Fazlullah, declared a cease-fire this week and government forces appeared to go along. The new fighting apparently was set off when Fazlullah’s followers attacked outposts manned by security forces.

Authorities said security in urban areas and borderlands was deteriorating.

“With reference to extremists and terrorists, it’s a bad situation,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema said Thursday. His statement was the latest by Musharraf aides fueling speculation that he would cite unrest to justify declaring emergency rule.

Musharraf, whose popularity has plummeted over the last six months, is likely to face new challenges to his authority, even assuming he survives the court challenge.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who returned to the country Oct. 18, has been in power-sharing talks with the general. However, Bhutto has made it clear that whether or not she reaches an accommodation with him, she will lead her party’s campaign for parliamentary elections due by mid-January.

Bhutto, who escaped harm in a bombing that killed more than 140 people in her homecoming procession in the early hours of Oct. 19, returned to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai on Thursday to visit her family. She had contemplated canceling her trip, saying she feared Musharraf was preparing to declare emergency rule or martial law.

Either step would give the government expanded powers to suppress dissent, muzzle the media and put off the elections.

Supreme Court justices have said repeatedly that the high court will not be swayed by the prospect of martial law as it deliberates whether to overturn the vote reelecting Musharraf.

In a new gesture of defiance, the high court on Thursday handed down a suspended 15-day jail term to Islamabad’s former police chief and his deputy for maltreating the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, during an attempt by Musharraf to fire Chaudhry early this year.

Separately, justices expressed impatience with the pace of a government investigation of the bombing of Bhutto’s convoy. Chaudhry ordered a report on the status of the probe.

Bhutto blamed Islamic militants for the attack, but said she believed they acted in complicity with rogue elements in the government.

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laura.king@latimes.com

Special correspondent Zaidi reported from Islamabad and Times staff writer King from Istanbul, Turkey.