The Daily Times has now filed a story on the motorcade attack, From the Daily Times:
At least 132 people were killed and hundreds injured late on Thursday night as suspected suicide bombers targeted former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her return from eight years in self-imposed exile.
Two explosions went off a minute apart shortly after midnight near Karsaz close to the vehicle Ms Bhutto was travelling in, at the head of a procession of hundreds of thousands of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supporters who had flooded the streets of Karachi to welcome the return of their leader.
The attack bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda and resembled assassination attempts by militants linked to the terrorist network on President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in recent years. Intelligence reports also warned of threats of suicide attacks against Ms Bhutto by militants linked to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Baitullah Mehsud, the Sindh home secretary said on Wednesday.
“The blasts hit two police vehicles which were escorting the truck carrying Ms Bhutto. The target was the truck,” senior Karachi police official Azhar Farooqui told Reuters.
Benazir safe: Ms Bhutto was leading the procession to Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, where she was to give a speech. However, after the two explosions, she was rushed to the safety of Bilawal House.
“Benazir Bhutto was immediately taken to her ancestral Bilawal House after the blast,” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told AFP. “She’s absolutely safe.” Rehman Malik, an aide to Ms Bhutto who was travelling with her on the truck, said the blasts went off while she was resting inside the vehicle.
Here’s the story they originally filed, but had to run a late edition to add the update as the attack came close to their normal press time.
UPDATE: Owaish at All Things Pakistan has an update — like the other blogs, and like the crazy rants you see in newspaper comments here, you see commenters speculating dark plots. Some of their party affiliations clearly show through, just like the blogs in the US where commenters go way over the top to support their ideology.
UPDATE: The valid speculation as to who is responsible starts, I think Bill Roggio got it right, and Baitullah Mehsud would be my top pick as well.
AP throws the laundry list of groups on the stack just to be safe, but they are really all just different fronts of the same AQ/Old-Guard ISI umbrella group. The mask they wear and name they bear depends on the occasion, as we were taught by the fictitious “Omar Al Baghdadi”, they must wear the popular clothes of the day if they are to gather adherents. As we’ve seen, sometimes the clothes of the day are even Hijabs for men.
Bottom line: regardless of party affiliation, all people in Pakistan should be able to gather and express political beliefs without fear. It’s a fundamental freedom.
