Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto received a death threat from a "friend of al Qaeda" on Tuesday, four days after 139 people were killed in an assassination attempt by one or more suicide bombers.No arrests have been made since last Friday's attack in Karachi, which government officials swiftly blamed on Islamist militants operating out of tribal areas that have become hotbeds of support for the Taliban and al Qaeda. Police were unsure whether there were two suicide bombers or one, and had yet to confirm whether the photograph released of a severed head belonged to a suicide bomber, Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqui told Reuters.
The investigation hadn't singled out any particular organization, the police chief said, but Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the trail led to tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. "Suicide bombers are trained in Waziristan and some other places in tribal areas. There are three groups in Waziristan. So the tracks go to tribal areas," Sherpao told independent television news channel ARYONE.
A fresh threat to kill Bhutto was passed onto her lawyer, Senator Farooq Naik, by a government prosecutor on Tuesday. Written by someone who described himself as the "chief of suicide attackers" and a friend of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and Pakistani jihadis, the letter said Bhutto could be stabbed, attacked in her car, or in her bedroom, Naik told Reuters. Naik said the threat should be taken seriously, even if the letter may have been written by a crank.