Benazir Bhutto’s supporter were chanting slogans ‘Long Live Bhutto’ on her arrival in Pakistan after eight years of exile but the welcome procession became the dead people’s pool all of a sudden when a suicide bomber attacked on Benazir’s cavalcade at 1AM on Friday in Karachi.
According to the report, the suicide bomber first lobbed a powerful grenade to the procession and them blew himself within minutes of the first blast.
The blasts occurred just about 10-15 ft away from the armored truck in which Bhutto was sitting that was moving through Karachi roads. Bhutto, who had received death threats from the Taliban and the al-Qaeda when she had announced her return escaped unhurt.
The twin blasts killed more than 140 people right at the spot. The latest report said that more than 400 people have been injured including 30 police personnel. After the blasts people were crying just beneath a mural declaring, ‘Long Live Bhutto.’
According to AP reports, the first explosion was sounded like a tire had blown out on a bus but another much stronger blast hit hard and created horrific scene of carnage everywhere.
A police van caught in fire, the streets were littered with the dead bodies and injured people. Arms, legs and other body parts were scattered everywhere. Limbless victims were crying out to strangers for help in the darkness.
Parents started searching for their missing children when the flames sent waves of heat and smell of blood in the air.
Bhutto’s procession took more than 10 hours to move through the streets of Karachi because it was moving at a snail’s pace through a crowd of hundreds of dancing and cheering supporters. Bhutto was in a truck and she escaped unhurt in the twin blasts.
An eyewitness said:
We were standing on top of the three-storey truck in which Ms Bhutto was present during the procession. The blast occurred at ground level but the body parts of the dead people and blood were splattered and rained all over us on third level of the truck.
Bhutto was taken in immediate protection and rushed off from the scene by PPP workers and police. The trauma hit me when I saw so much blood on my clothes. It’s a horrible, horrible situation.
Pakistan People’s Party workers and police later made it confirm that Bhutto escaped unhurt and was rushed from the site of the blasts to her home, Bilawal House.
The United States has condemned the attack on Benazir Bhutto by leading global condemnation of the attack.
White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe, said:
There is no political cause that can justify the murder of innocent people.... The United States condemns the violent attack in Pakistan and mourns the loss of innocent life there.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said:
The attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. This is a reminder of the evil of Al-Qaeda. This is a reminder of how important it is not to concede a victory to them in Iraq or in Afghanistan.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep shock over the attack on Benazir. He said that he believed all political forces in Pakistan would act together to strengthen national unity.
Via AP
Images: AP
