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2007
Pakistan Election:Two bombers launched Pakistan attack
Tuesday
October 23, 2007
Two
suicide bombers were behind the attack
that targeted the former Pakistani prime minister
Benazir Bhutto as she returned from exile, one of the
country's top intelligence officials said today.
Ms
Bhutto escaped unhurt in the attack
on her heavily guarded convoy in Karachi
on Thursday. At least 136 people were killed in the blasts.
Police
initially said only one suicide bomber
had carried out the attack, but the official
- speaking on condition of anonymity - said two severed
heads found at the scene, and the fact that no families
had claimed either, suggested two men were responsible.
The planners of the attack would be "brought
to book", the Pakistani prime minister,
Shaukat Aziz, said in a statement released today.
His
statement rejected Ms Bhutto's request
for experts from the US and Britain to be called in to
help with the investigation into the blasts.
Mr
Azizsaid that, in past attacks,
"our security agencies [have] successfully investigated
and arrested the perpetrators and are fully capable of
investigating such untoward incidents".
Ms
Bhutto was allowed back into Pakistan
from exile after apparently striking a power-sharing deal
with the president, General Pervez Musharraf.
However,
she has been engulfed in a war of words with Mr Aziz's
government - which is backed by Gen Musharraf
- and in particular with the chief of the Pakistan
Muslim League party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,
following Thursday's attack.
The
government has blamed the blasts on pro-Taliban
Islamic militants, but Ms Bhutto says important figures
from Mr Hussain's party could be implicated.
She
claimed he was "protecting the killers" but
gave no further details.
Mr
Hussain responded by saying Ms Bhutto's
husband had arranged the blasts to stir
up public sympathy, adding that the former prime
minister had gone into her armoured vehicle minutes
before the bombs exploded and was not hurt.
In
exchange for being allowed home from exile, Ms Bhutto
was expected to form an alliance with Mr Hussain's party
to back Gen Musharraf in a January parliamentary
vote.
However,
the fallout from the attack appears to
have strained the potential for such cooperation.s way."
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