Islamabad - Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto
said Sunday she would not be stopped by the suicide bombing that
killed 140 people in Karachi, as thousands of her supporters held
rallies across southern Pakistan for the third consecutive day to
protest the attack.
'The supporters of militants and al-Qaeda want to stop the
restoration of democracy because they see it as a threat to the
structure of militancy,' she told reporters in Karachi.
'We will have to modify our campaign to some extent because of the
suicide bombings but we are not going to be deterred from reaching
the public,' she added.
Earlier Sunday, she expressed solidarity with more than 100
injured victims in the city's Jinnah hospital. It was her first
public appearance since the blasts and was kept secret for security
reasons.
'It was an act of sabotage,' she told reporters as dozens of
heavily armed supporters and police officers guarded her. 'We will
serve the nation while combatting terrorism,' she added.
More than 500 people were injured in the two explosions that
ripped through a procession Bhutto was leading after arriving from
Dubai, ending an eight-year, self-imposed exile on Thursday.
Police suspect the first blast was caused by a hand grenade that a
suicide bomber threw into the crowd before blowing himself up in the
second blast.
A picture of the suspected attacker's head has been released
although there has been no major breakthrough in the investigation, a
police official said on condition of anonymity.
Bhutto later attended a religious ceremony for the victims, mostly
from her Pakistan Peoples Party.
'The message of Islam is the message of peace. Prophet Mohammed
advised the Muslims to get knowledge. But why people in our country
are taught violence instead of knowledge? Violence yields
destruction,' she said.
'Islam forbids attack on innocent people. Islam says do not attack
women, children and elderly people even in war. But the terrorists
attacked 3 million people, among which were children, women and
elderly people. '
'I urge upon mothers that they should raise their children in such
a manner that they do not carry weapons to kill innocent, poor and
weak,' she added.
Meanwhile, most business centres, markets, and fuel stations
remained closed in the southern province of Sindh, a stronghold of
Bhutto's PPP, while angry protesters blocked roads in some cities,
forcing traffic to remain off the road.
Police in Hyderabad, some 150 kilometres north-east of the
provincial capital Karachi, booked two dozen stick-wielding PPP
workers who were trying to force shopkeepers to close their shops.
In other areas, the strike was observed voluntarily in response to
Bhutto's call for three days of mourning, starting from Friday.
Resentment has also grown in other parts of the country. Hundreds
of people chanted slogans against the so far unknown attackers and in
support of Bhutto after attending the funeral of a victim in Mach
town, around 50 kilometres east of the provincial capital Quetta in
Balochistan.
In several cities of central Punjab province, people attended
funerals for the 140 killed in the attack, for which no-one has so
far claimed responsibility.
At times, Bhutto has pointed the finger at Islamic militants
incensed at her support for the United States and her alliance with
President General Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally in the war against
terrorism.
Yet she has also accused 'some elements' within Musharraf's
government, who earlier this month granted Bhutto an amnesty on the
corruption charges she faced as part of a US-backed power-sharing
deal and allowed her to return home to participate in forthcoming
general elections.
But Saturday's carnage has prompted fears for those elections and
media reported that some cabinet ministers had recently advised the
military ruler to postpone them.
Washington rushed to reject the proposal Saturday, saying the
democratic process in Pakistan should not be undermined by Thursday's
bombings.
'We do not wish to see any action taking place that would
undermine the democratic process in Pakistan or make it harder for
the Pakistani people to have an opportunity to express their views in
free and fair elections,' White House Press Secretary Dana Pernio
said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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