(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The deadly Iraq-style twin bomb attack on opposition leader and former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto's motorcade late on Thursday leave her caught on the horns of a dilemma. Her political fiefdom depends on Western support, but this alliance can only put her on a collision course with Islamist militants, making it is unclear if Bhutto will continue with her pro-western policies after Thursday's bomb attacks. The bombings killed 133 people and injured many more as her convoy edged through hundreds of thousands of supporters in the southern city of Karachi the day she returned in apparent triumph to her homeland after eight years of self-imposed exile.
No one has yet claimed the attack, but unnamed jihadi sources told Adnkronos International (AKI) that it bears the hallmarks of al-Qaeda. Militants linked to al-Qaeda angered by Bhutto's support for the war on terrorism had this weekend threatened to assassinate her. Moreover, al-Qaeda cells have been uncovered in Karachi in the past.
An Al-Qaeda cell called Jundullah which trained in the restive Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan in 2005 attacked the former vice chief of army staff Gen. Ehsan Saleem Hayat's motorcade. A number of Jundullah members were arrested and it emerged that dozens of people from Karachi had trained in al-Qaeda camps in Waziristan to carry out attacks against prominent people and government targets.
A top official in Pakistan's ISI intelligence services told AKI on background that Bhutto was advised not to continue her procession through the city as security services could not guarantee her safety for more than six hours. Bhutto had stood for many hours in the open top of her armoured bus as it inched from the airport through the city and probably survived the assassination attempt because she was resting in a bullet proof section of the bus at the time of the blasts.
Pakistani police said they believe the bigger of the two blasts was a suicide attack. But sources told AKI it appears to have been a device detonated with a timer. Security forces activated mobile phone jammers making it impossible for the bombers to have used remote controlled devices. Those who planned the attack timed it shrewdly - at midnight , when Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers were tired from the rally which began many hours earlier and security had been lowered. By that time, the number of people attending the rally had dwindled to 15,000-20,000, making it easy for the bombers to get up close to Bhutto's vehicle.
Pakistan's president Gen. Pervez Musharraf has condemned the attack against Bhutto as a "conspiracy against democracy." But Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardar, has accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of involvement - a suspicion reportedly shared by many in Pakistan. Bhutto, 54, has many enemies in Pakistan with links to the country's security apparatus and jihadi groups, dating back to her two previous stints as prime minister during the 1980s and 1990s. On both occasions, her government was prematurely dismissed by the president of the day under special powers. She left Pakistan in April 1999, two years after her husband had been jailed and a series of corruption charges were brought against her. Bhutto, a billionaire, denies the charges.
Bhutto was able to return to Pakistan after Musharraf on the eve of the 6 October presidential polls announced an ordinance to drop the graft charges against her as part of a possible future power-sharing deal between the two leaders. The opposition PPP is the largest political party in Pakistan and won the largest number of seats (68) in Pakistan's last parliamentary elections in 2002.
Western-educated Bhutto is a target for militants because governments such as the Britain and the United States view her as an essential component in the US led war on terror. Her return to Pakistan was the result of western pressure on the Pakistani government to reach a settlement with her, according to observers.
Western support is not only essential for Bhutto's political career, but also for the release of her frozen international accounts. This can only occur once the government lifts the corruption charges against her and if necessary forces Pakistani courts not to pursue these. The Supreme Court is due next month to consider petitions challenging the constitutionality of an amnesty dropping graft charges against Bhutto. Her total declared assets are 1.5 billion US dollars, and include bank holdings, property and business interests in Europe and the United States.