{"id":379,"date":"2007-10-19T10:17:26","date_gmt":"2007-10-19T00:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=379"},"modified":"2007-10-19T11:47:19","modified_gmt":"2007-10-19T01:47:19","slug":"dozens-die-in-bhutto-assassination-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Dozens Die In Bhutto Assassination Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sind<\/p>\n

More than 100 people have been killed during an assassination attempt on the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi.<\/p>\n

Scene of bomb blastTwo bombs went off in a procession welcoming her back to the country after eight years in exile.<\/p>\n

Her bullet-proof bus had just passed when the blasts happened.<\/p>\n

She was unhurt and has been taken to her house in the city but at least 115 people were killed and around 150 others wounded.<\/p>\n

An initial small explosion was followed by a huge blast just feet from the vehicle. At least one of them was thought to be a suicide bombing.<\/p>\n

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said the attack represented “a conspiracy against democracy” and the US also condemned the atrocity.<\/p>\n

Ms Bhutto’s procession had been heading to a rally near the tomb of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people had lined the route.<\/p>\n

Militants linked to al Qaeda, angered by her support for the US war on terrorism, had threatened to assassinate her.<\/p>\n

Christina Lamb, Ms Bhutto’s biographer, was on the truck at the time of the explosions.<\/p>\n

She told Sky News of the terrifying moment that one of the bombs went off, covering her in blood.<\/p>\n

“We had been on the bus for about nine hours, there were huge crowds and we were talking about what a great atmosphere there was.<\/p>\n

“Suddenly there was an enormous blast and a huge ball of orange flame came across the front of the bus.<\/p>\n

Bhutto’s vehicle targeted”Everybody just screamed. I was covered in blood, but it wasn’t mine, it was somebody else’s.<\/p>\n

“There were about 20 people on top of the bus, it was pretty exposed in retrospect.”<\/p>\n

She added that Ms Bhutto had by chance gone downstairs in the bus away from the blast at the time it went off.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure she feels really devastated that this has happened,” she added.<\/p>\n

Four bullets were reportedly fired at the convoy but were held by the reinforced glass on the bus.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Ms Bhutto pledged to fight for democracy as she ended her exile over allegations of corruption amid chaotic scenes at Karachi airport.<\/p>\n

With tears in her eyes as she walked off the plane that had brought her from Dubai, Ms Bhutto waved at supporters and said: “I feel good.<\/p>\n

“I counted the hours, the minutes and the seconds just to see this land, sky and grass.”<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old said she was fighting for democracy and to help her country defeat the extremism that she said had given it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.<\/p>\n

Some 2,500 paramilitary troops had been deployed around Karachi airport and 10,000 more were on standby for her homecoming.<\/p>\n

Brushing off fears of Islamic militant attack, Ms Bhutto told Sky News in an exclusive interview this week that only she could bring democracy back to Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Ms Bhutto’s return follows negotiations with President General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup.<\/p>\n

Rising death toll in Pakistan blast – SMH – 19.Oct 07<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pakistan page at Sky News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Sind<\/p>\n

More than 100 people have been killed during an assassination attempt on the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi.<\/p>\n

Scene of bomb blastTwo bombs went off in a procession welcoming her back to the country after eight years in exile.<\/p>\n

Her bullet-proof bus had just passed when the blasts happened.<\/p>\n

She was unhurt and has been taken to her house in the city but at least 115 people were killed and around 150 others wounded. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":4084,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ttSq-67","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}