BREAKING NEWS:Blasts Kill 100+ After Bhutto Returns to Pakistan

[.coma]

 

VID -----> http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2ba_1192742876

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/asia/18cnd-pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 

KARACHI, Pakistan, Friday, Oct. 19 — Two bombs exploded Thursday night just seconds apart and feet from a truck carrying the returning opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, narrowly missing her but killing scores of people and bloodying a triumphal homecoming after eight years in exile.

 

Various reports said up to 126 were killed and some 150 were wounded, including civilians and party workers. In the initial chaos, however, the Interior Ministry could only confirm 70 deaths.

 

Ms. Bhutto, who had spent eight hours on the roof of the truck waving to supporters, had climbed inside the armored vehicle 10 minutes before the blast occurred just before midnight, said Rehman Malik, Ms. Bhutto’s security adviser and close associate.

 

She was immediately taken to Bilawal House, her home in Karachi, ending her parade through the city to the tomb of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

 

Ms. Bhutto’s arrival here around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday had drawn huge crowds, perhaps 200,000 or more, who danced on the tops of buses and surged forward as she inched her way through her home city.

 

The strong outpouring provided an emotional homecoming for Ms. Bhutto and political vindication of sorts for a woman twice turned out of office as prime minister, after being accused corruption and mismanagement.

 

It also demonstrated that Ms. Bhutto remained a decisive political force in Pakistan, even after her long absence, and marked what supporters and opponents alike agreed was a new political chapter for the nation.

 

The violence that quickly followed showed it to be a treacherous one as well.

 

The explosions, caught on camera, gave off brilliant white flashes, and set two cars ablaze. Survivors stumbled over bodies and debris in a haze of smoke. It was not immediately clear if the explosions were caused by suicide bombers.

 

“I can only say that I saw heaps of bodies lying over there,” her adviser, Mr. Malik, said. He was standing at the front of the truck and was knocked down by the force of the blast, he said. His hair was burnt.

 

“The damage could have been much worse had we not taken our own security arrangements,” he added.

 

The government had promised before Ms. Bhutto’s arrival to provide security. It had also asked her to delay returning. But Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party had fielded 2,000 of its own workers to form rings around their returning leader, guarding her with their numbers and preventing any vehicles or people from approaching.

 

Before the explosions sundered the celebration, thousands of supporters and workers from her party had lined Ms. Bhutto’s route, waving banners and surging forward for a glimpse of the opposition leader as she inched her way through the streets. Many danced on bus tops and in the road.

 

Ms. Bhutto waved as music pumped out from loudspeakers. The crowd was overwhelmingly working class. Many young men said they were unemployed, but had traveled hundreds of miles, paying their own way, and camping out overnight on the road to the airport to await her arrival.

 

In the crowd, Raja Munir Ahmed, 42, a real estate agent, said he had come from Mirpur in Pakistani administered part of Kashmir. “It was a journey of 1,500 kilometers and all along we saw buses and cars carrying Peoples Party flags,” he said. “People want change. People want to get rid of inflation and unemployment.”

 

Then he shouted, “Long live Bhutto!” and disappeared into the crowd.

 

Such supporters were among the majority of those killed and wounded. But about 20 were also police and law enforcement officials, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, said. Eight police vans were flanking the truck at the time and the explosions occurred on the left and right sides of the road, he said.

 

He denied it was a security lapse, saying that the crowds and length of the route made it extremely difficult to ensure security.

 

Earlier, Ms. Bhutto was clearly emotional as she took her first steps on Pakistani soil, having lived the last eight years in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai.

 

She climbed down a metal staircase to reach the tarmac, and paused on the bottom step and prayed as friends held a Koran aloft. As an aide embraced her, Ms. Bhutto wiped tears from eyes.

 

“The most important step — to be back on Pakistani soil,” she said, as cameramen swarmed around her.

[Dawood]

Russel, Now this is senseless, evil violence

[russell jones]

No doubt.