Dear John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
Dear Sir,Actually today the people of whole tribal belt are in state of mourning as they were greatly upset over the bombing attack on Benazir Bhutto.
They have great admiration for Benazir Bhutto in the tribal areas. Her father Zulfiqar Bhutto was the fist ruler of Pakistan who has built a college in Bajaur Agency in 1974.
Pakistan Peoples Party Friday announced three days’ countrywide mourning after attack on the party’s rally that killed over 133 and wounded more than 545 people.
In the three-day mourning party flag at the PPP offices throughout Pakistan would be lowered at half-mast and black flags will be hoisted to mourn the tragic incident. Bhutto was unhurt, narrowly escaping with her life as the blasts ripped through the police escort of the parade in the streets of Karachi, which were thronged with hundreds of thousands of her supporters.
Government sources said it was a suicide attack. Federal Interior Ministry has confirmed 70 deaths in the incident. According to reports gathered from various sources hundreds of people were killed in the attack.A car bomb went off Thursday night near a truck carrying former Prime Minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on her return to Pakistan after eight years in exile, killing 130 people and wounding hundreds.
The former prime minister miraculously escaped the blast as she was in the compartment especially devised in the truck for rest, PPP leaders said. According to eyewitnesses, the explosives-laden car was only yards away from the truck carrying Benazir when it went off when her motorcade was inching through sea of supporters near Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) head office at Shahrahe-e-Faisal.Large number of people including PPP workers, journalists, camera crew of TV channels and law enforcers were among the dead and injured. Camera man of ARY Channel Irfan Khan was killed on the spot.
Soon after the explosion, fire broke out in the vehicles accompanying Benazir’s truck. Witnesses said bodies were lying in pool of blood and the human limbs were scattered everywhere as some reports said two bombs exploded with big bang. Some bodies also caught fire. The splinters also hit the PPP leaders on the truck with Benazir Bhutto. Those who sustained injuries included Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Begum Abida Hussain, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Aitzaz Ahsan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Fauzia Wahab and several others.
However, Benazir who went down to the apartment inside the truck for rest leaders taken out of the truck and was rushed to Bilawal House.In the meantime, ambulances rushed to spot and shifted bodies and injured people to hospitals. Jinnah, Liaquat National, Civil, Aga Khan and Zubaida hospitals were filled with the bodies and injured. Emergency was declared in all the hospitals and announcement was made for blood donation.
According to initial reports, about 40 bodies and 80 injured were shifted to Liaquat National Hospital, 45 bodies and 75 injured admitted to Jinnah Hospital.About 25 bodies were taken to Civil Hospital, 15 dead and injured were sent to Zubaida and Aga Khan hospitals.SSP CID Raja Umer Khattab while talking to The Nation said that it was a suicide attack. He said that police has found the head of the alleged suicide bomber. He said that 22 police commandos were among the dead, while two police mobiles were among two other vehicles were damaged. Rangers cordoned off the entire area.
gencies add: “There were two massive explosions near Bhutto’s vehicle. We have 78 people who have been killed and 151 injured so far,” senior Karachi police officer Javed Ali told AFP.Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said that Bhutto herself was safe, while Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the two blasts were apparent suicide attacks.Karachi policeman Falak Ahmad said that Bhutto had just descended into the interior of the truck after standing on top for hours to greet the crowds that turned out to welcome her home.
“The blasts were only around 15 feet from her truck. Minutes before she had gone inside the truck when there was a huge bang,” Ahmad said.“The blast was so powerful that it destroyed three police vehicles escorting Bhutto’s truck.”The car was only yards away from the truck carrying Bhutto when the bomb went off as her motorcade inched through crowds of supporters in Karachi.Television footage showed mutilated bodies lying on the street.An initial small explosion was followed by a huge blast just feet from the front of the truck carrying Bhutto during a procession through Karachi. The blast shattered windows in her vehicle.Footage from the scene showed bodies on the ground, lying motionless, plus a dozen or more injured who were moving. Several motorcycles also lay on their sides. Flames burned in the center of the street after the explosions.Scores of people, mostly men wearing white robes, fled down the street after the blast.
More than 150,000 jubilant supporters had surrounded the convoy carrying Bhutto amid massive security in Karachi. Her companions said she reached her destination safely.People’s Party Leader Qasim Zia, who was riding on Bhutto’s truck, said one of his bodyguards was seriously injured.Those traveling atop the truck with Bhutto climbed down, with one man jumping off while others climbed down. Bhutto’s lawyer, Babar Awan, said that the former premier was safe.Police Chief Azhar Farooqi said that Bhutto was rushed from the area under contingency plans.
“She was evacuated very safely and is now in Bilawal House,” Farooqi said, referring to Bhutto’s residence in Karachi.Provincial Home Secretary Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram said the main force of the blast appeared to be taken by the police vehicle.People at the scene moved the injured away from the fires near the blast site. One bystander came upon a body, checked for signs of life, and moved on, presumably to find more who could be saved.After the blasts, pickup trucks filled with men rushed away from the scene and others began to run, but many more stayed and milled in between the police vehicle and those of the procession.
Cars halted in the road, people climbing on car roofs to try to catch a glimpse of the fire behind them.Authorities had urged her to travel in Karachi by helicopter to reduce the risk of attack. But Bhutto, hated by radical Islamists because she supports the US-led war on terrorism, brushed off the concerns. “I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission,” she had told reporters on the plane. “This is a movement for democracy because we are under threat from extremists and militants.” Benazir homecoming parade was hit by two apparent suicide attackers, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP.
“There were two blasts, one on the left side and one on the right side of the procession,” Sherpao said. “It appears these were suicide attacks, but it is not confirmed.Faheem Raza, Ramzan Chandio and Nisar Mehdi adds: Earlier, several hundreds of thousands of people carrying tricolours of PPP gave an epic reception to former Prime Minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto at Karachi Airport on Thursday afternoon when she arrived after eight years of her self-imposed exile.When Benazir, wearing shalwar-kameez of Pakistani flag colours, appeared before the masses the crowd broke into spontaneous slogans of ‘Jeay Benazir Bhutto’ which she responded by raising both her hands in the air.
Benazir refused to travel behind the bulletproof glass shield, which was removed from the truck. Wearing Imam Zamin on both of her arms the PPP Chairperson greeted workers by waving her hands at them.Tears rolled down her face after seeing love and affection of her supporters who belonged to all ages. Emotional scenes were witnessed on her arrival and several party leaders including Benazir were weeping, but their tears were the tears of joy.
PPP workers from interior Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas of the country assembled early in the morning outside Karachi Airport to have a glimpse of the PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.MNAs and MPAs from Punjab and the workers who chanted slogans ‘Wazir-e-Azam Benazir’ said that Chaudhrys of Gujrat should open their eyes that no person would eliminate love for Bhutto from the hearts of the Pakistanis.PPP workers packed the whole area from Terminal No. 1 fo Karachi Airport to Shahrah-e-Faisal and Shahrah-e-Quaideen up to Quaid-i-Azam mausoleum.
Benazir, while talking to media, said that the people and workers are asset of her party, adding time was ripe for invoking collective wisdom of the country at this critical crossroads.“Pakistan’s real power is visible on Karachi roads today,” said Benazir pledging that she would live and die together with the downtrodden, deprived and toiling people of the country.
The PPP Chairperson said some people were playing in the hands of those elements who instigate extremism. “Differences should not mean that we should adopt militancy as Islam is the harbinger of peace and tranquillity,” she told a questioner.
She said that Pakistan would be saved if democracy was saved as many in the world were declaring the country as a failed state. She said that Pakistan needed free, fair and transparent elections to pick the road of democracy and to exercise collective wisdom through such elections.Agencies add: Benazir said that her agenda is of the agenda of Pakistan and that she will work for resolving the people’s problems.
In a brief statement on her arrival at Karachi Airport, she said she feels very happy to be on the country’s soil after remaining in exile for eight long years.Benazir said uniform and democracy could not go together, and would have to be separated. Talking to a private TV channel after her landing at Karachi airport, Benazir said that ‘patience and tolerance’ is her message for the establishment and political parties. “Political cooperation with PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif is still possible,” she responded to a question about political reconciliation with other political parties.“Pakistan is my agenda, I am from this soil and my relation with my soil can never end,” said Benazir, adding that elimination of poverty and restoration of peace was her priority.
Eulogising steps taken by Karachi city Nazim, BB said she was thankful to him who didn’t direct city police to disrupt PPP procession arrangements.Meanwhile, security was tight along the route of the procession from the airport to the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam, following police reports of threats by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to assassinate her. The 54-year-old flew home from Dubai vowing to lead her party in elections aimed at restoring Pakistan to civilian rule, and making no mention of a mooted power-sharing deal with embattled military President Pervez Musharraf. “I am much older, I have learned a lot over the last 20 years but we are still fighting a dictatorship,” Benazir told AFP. “We want to isolate extremists and build a better Pakistan,” she said. More than 20,000 police and troops, backed up by bomb squads with sniffer dogs, patrolled the route from Karachi airport to the imposing mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam.
I don’t want to think of the risk,” the two-time prime minister, whose brother was shot dead in Karachi in 1996, said before the plane took off from Dubai.
I want to bring in your kind notice the powerful establishment was against her return to the country. According an official newspaper comment, MS Bhutto has finally returned in grand manner to Pakistan with due protocol at both ends of her journey. The crowd that had gathered at the airport to greet her was drawn from all the four provinces, Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir. It was announced before her arrival that the government would abide by the NRO and she would not be arrested.
The administration in fact took measures to provide her extraordinary security cover. 20,000 Rangers were deployed to guard the airport, jamming devices were installed to provide security to the vehicle in which Ms Bhutto was travelling.
Police Commandos escorted her from the airport to Bilwal House. Educational institutions were closed to ease the party workers’ movement on the roads. While the government is supposed to provide security to former Prime Ministers, these measures were needed in view of the situation prevailing in the country. The PPP on its part had issued a code of conduct to its workers binding them to maintain peace, avoid display of weapons, not to deliver derogatory speeches or raise slogans against other parties. Eyebrows have been raised at certain double-edged remarks made by Ms Bhutto at a press conference in Dubai on Wednesday. They assume unusual importance as these were delivered a day before she returned to Pakistan. Referring to the challenges facing the National Reconciliation Ordinance in the Supreme Court, she complained that the apex court had neither taken action when Dr AQ Khan had confessed to being involved in the export of sensitive nuclear technology and equipment nor when Mian Nawaz Sharif was taken out of jail and sent abroad while her own father had been hanged. There is no doubt grave injustice was meted out to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto whose hanging is now widely considered an act of judicial murder. Many would agree that the SC has at a number of times delivered judgements that have not brought good name to it. What happened to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has however to be seen in a wider perspective. The combination of powerful internal and external forces which helped precipitate the grave inequity in his case did not allow this to be repeated in the case of Mian Nawaz Sharif.
It is a strange quirk of history that the same forces are currently supportive of Ms Bhutto. The fact that the SC has not been pro-active at all times in the past and failed to take up suo moto action in Dr AQ Khan’s case should not be used as an argument against its being pro-active today. One hopes Ms Bhutto would learn to live with an independent judiciary. One also expects from a national leader that she would rise above parochial sentiments.
Dear Sir, the tribesmen were really upset over the attack.
Again thank you very much,
Muhammad Khurshid
Khar, Bajaur Agency,Tribal Areas Pakistan
