Suicide bombings cannot stop me: Bhutto (Roundup)

Oct 21, 2007, 14:22 GMT

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.