Suicide bomb bid as Bhutto's party prepares for talks
Suicide attackers tried to kill a leading Pakistani politician today as members of Benazir Bhutto’s political party prepared for critical meetings on whether to boycott January 8 elections following her assassination.
The attack was the first in Pakistan since Ms Bhutto’s killing.
Two suspected militants blew themselves up close to the residence of Ijazul Haq, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, in eastern Pakistan, said Zafar Abbas Bukhari, the district police chief. Both men died, but there were no other casualties.
Police said Mr Haq was the target of the attack, but was not home at the time.
Mr Haq was minister for religious affairs in July when the government launched a military operation against a militant-linked mosque in Islamabad, killing more than 100 people. He is reportedly on a militant hit list.
Meanwhile the Pakistan People’s Party meeting will read Ms Bhutto’s last will and testament and consider her replacement as leader at its meeting amid controversy surrounding her death, which triggered nationwide riots and thrust the nuclear-armed country into deep political crisis.
The government rejected suggestions it should enlist foreign help in investigating Ms Bhutto’s killing on Thursday in a suicide bomb and gun attack.
The Islamic militant group blamed by officials for the attack denied any links to the killing and Ms Bhutto’s aides accused the government of a cover-up.
A pull-out by the Pakistan People’s Party could destroy the credibility of next month’s poll, already being boycotted by Pakistan’s other main opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.
Washington has pressured its ally, President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup eight years ago, to push ahead with the election to promote stability in the country and help it better fight rising violence by al Qaida and Taliban militants.
Mass unrest among her supporters since Thursday has left at least 44 people dead and tens of millions of damage. Rioters have destroyed 176 banks, 34 petrol stations, 72 train carriages, 18 railway stations, and hundreds of cars and shops.
They have also wrecked nine election offices – along with the voter rolls and ballot boxes inside – hampered the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers, the election commission said. The commission has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow.
Uncertainty has intensified over the circumstances of Ms Bhutto’s assassination as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armoured vehicle outside a campaign rally.
Video footage shows a man shooting at her three times from close range seconds before her car is caught up in an explosion from a suicide attacker.
Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, but interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema later said she was killed when the shockwaves from the suicide bomb smashed her head into the sunroof as she tried to duck back inside the vehicle.
Ms Bhutto’s spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said, “We saw a bullet wound in the back of her neck. What the government is saying is actually dangerous and nonsensical. They are pouring salt on our wounds.”
The government blamed the attack on the Tehrik-i-Taliban, a newly-formed coalition of Islamic militants led by Baitullah Mehsud along the Afghan border believed to be linked to al Qaida and committed to waging holy war against the government.
But Mehsud spokesman Maulana Mohammed Umer said: “We strongly deny it. Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto.”
A spokesman for Ms Bhutto’s party, Farhatullah Babar, said the government’s accusations against Mehsud “appears to us to be a planted story, an incorrect story, because they want to divert the attention”.
Mr Cheema said Bhutto’s party was free to exhume her body to conduct an autopsy, but rejected calls for an international investigation. An independent domestic judicial investigation should be completed within seven days of the appointment of its presiding judge, he said.
However, a senior US official said that Pakistan was quietly “discussing with other governments as to how best the investigation can be handled”.
With the US, the discussions “are about what we can offer and what the Pakistanis want. Having some help to make sure international questions are answered is definitely an option”, the un-named official said.
