Blast in Benazir procession more than 138 people died

[slimoe]

the explosion took place near police cars escorting BB's truck,the DIG of the police said that the police cars took most of the impact but 80 ppl were injured n arnd 50 had died,he also said that the police men saw two men walking towards the police vehicles just seconds before the explosion(who cud have been suicide bombers)

 

[waz]

Very sad day for Pakistan, May Allah give Jannat to all those who died at the hands of this brute. Benazir defied government requests, paraded around like a queen and made the task of targeting her a whole lot easier. She is to blame for this as well.

Whilst the rest of Pakistan watches in horror the anger against these militants grows and the quicker we start an extermination campaign of such vermin the better.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Friend:

Look out for terrorist apologists, who caught up in the dream of Mullah rule, will tout the "opinions" of a columnist, detailing the denials of a militant, who has abducted 300 soldiers, killed three of them,unarmed, shamelessly and like a coward, who earlier beheaded another soldier, video taped it and distributed the tape. Yes this is the Baitullah Mehsud whose denials we are to believe.

And what of this coward and terrorist:

Lal Masjid threatens suicide attacks​

By Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD, April 6: Formally announcing the establishment of a parallel judicial system, the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid administration on Friday vowed to enforce Islamic laws in the federal capital and threatened to unleash a wave of suicide bombers if the government took any action to counter it.

“Our youth will commit suicide attacks, if the government impedes the enforcement of the Sharia and attacks Lal Masjid and its sister seminaries,” Maulana Abdul Aziz, the in-charge of the mosque said in his Friday sermon.

The fresh suicide bombing threat is stated to be the strongest given so far by the hard-line clerics of the Lal Masjid, intensifying fear among Islamabad residents.

 

[parihaka]

My sincere condolences to any Pakistanis who lost kith and kin in this atrocity.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

why couldn't benazir take a helicopter ???

that way the tragedy could have been avoided...

was it a suicide attack by any chance ???

after her arrival she should have just gone home by a helicopter

She has returned to Pakistan not to see her ancestral home.

She has come to Pakistan to win an election.

Had she gone by helicopter, it would not have had the same effect on the votes as going by truck in a triumphant return and being amongst the Pakistan public, the thousands that had come to greet her! The media reports thus along the photographs would have a great effect on the voting public about her popularity!

The blasts, unfortunate that they were, would get a whole lot of sympathy for her.

The PPP will make the most of the alleged threat of Mehsud, no matter what maybe the actualities of the case.

It appears that everything is falling in place for her to keep her in the limelight and political ascendancy.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

She has returned to Pakistan not to see her ancestral home.

She has come to Pakistan to win an election.

Had she gone by helicopter, it would not have had the same effect on the votes as going by truck in a triumphant return and being amongst the Pakistan public, the thousands that had come to greet her! The media reports thus along the photographs would have a great effect on the voting public about her popularity!

The blasts, unfortunate that they were, would get a whole lot of sympathy for her.

The PPP will make the most of the alleged threat of Mehsud, no matter what maybe the actualities of the case.

It appears that everything is falling in place for her to keep her in the limelight and political ascendancy.

Her behavior and statements, and those of her spouse and some other PPP leaders, in the immediate aftermath of the blasts, have only sharpened my distrust of her, not just as a "corrupt and opportunistic" politician, but also in her capabilities to bring about any change. She claims that she shall "rout the extremists" and "wage war against terrorism", yet she seems to be squandering a golden chance, mired in tragedy, to turn the tidal wave of support for her into opposition to the extremists. Instead she is busy point scoring and blaming the government and intelligence agencies for "security lapses", when her own security team refused to implement the VVIP security cover arrangements that would have been "too restrictive", and every security analyst admitted that it would be a nightmare preventing any such acts in the situation that was anticipated.

I can foresee this whole charade - if she ends up getting elected, the violence will continue, and having lost an opportunity to move opinion against radicalism, and even less will to take decisive action against them, the "establishment" card will be played again - "the establishment wants my government to fail, the jihadis love me because I am democratic! It is the establishment that is carrying out his violence!"

 

[Flintlock]

Benazir survives suicide attack, over 126 killed
19 Oct 2007, 0658 hrs IST,AP

SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates
KARACHI: Former premier Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped a suicide bombing that shattered her homecoming procession and killed 126 people hours after she returned to Pakistan from exile pledging to fight extremism and promote democracy.

Two explosions late Thursday struck near a truck carrying Bhutto, shattering its windows, but police and officials of her party said she was not injured and was hurried to her house.

Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 126 dead and 248 wounded, making it one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan's history.

Bhutto flew home earlier Thursday to lead her Pakistan People's Party in January parliamentary elections after eight years in exile, drawing cheers from supporters massed in Pakistan's biggest city in a sea of the party's red, green and black flags. The police chief said 150,000 were in the streets of Karachi, while other onlookers estimated twice that.

The throngs reflected Bhutto's enduring political clout, but she has made enemies of Islamic militants by taking a pro-U.S. line and negotiating a possible political alliance with Pakistan's military ruler, President General Pervez Musharraf.

Authorities had urged her to use a helicopter to reduce the risk of attack amid threats from extremists sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaida, but she brushed off the concerns.

"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai.

At the airport in Karachi, she said she was fighting for democracy and to help this nuclear-armed country of 160 million people defeat the extremism that gave it the reputation as a hotbed of international terrorism.

"That's not the real image of Pakistan. The people that you see outside are the real image of Pakistan. These are the decent and hardworking middle-classes and working classes of Pakistan who want to be empowered so they can build a moderate, modern nation," she said.

Leaving the airport, Bhutto refused to use a bullet proof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her to the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to give a speech.

Her procession had been creeping toward the centre of Karachi for 10 hours, as dancing and cheering supporters swarmed around the truck, when a small explosion erupted near the front of the vehicle, about halfway from the airport to the tomb.

That was quickly followed by a larger blast, setting an escorting police van on fire and breaking windows in Bhutto's vehicle. Party members on top of the truck scrambled to the ground.

The former premier had just gone to a downstairs compartment in the truck for a rest when the blast occurred, said Christina Lamb, Bhutto's biographer.

"She knew she was a target ... she was worried that the lights were going off, the street lights, and that snipers could be on tops of buildings and bridges," she told Sky News.

"Luckily the bus had a downstairs enclosed compartment for her to go and rest in, and she just happened to be there when it went off, so she wasn't on top in the open like rest of us, so that just saved her," she said.

Police officer Raja Umer Khitab said evidence at the scene suggested it was a suicide bombing. He said it destroyed two police vans escorting Bhutto's truck."

In the aftermath, bodies lay motionless in the street, under a mural reading "Long Live Bhutto" on the side of the truck. Pools of blood, broken glass, tires, motorcycles and bits of clothing littered the ground. One bystander came upon a body, checked for signs of life, and moved on.

Some of the injured were rushed on stretchers into a hospital, and others were carried by rescuers in their arms.

Karachi has a history of violent attacks by Islamic militants, but this appeared to be the deadliest yet. In April 2006, a suicide bombing killed 57 people, including the top leaders of a Sunni Muslim group.

The United States, the United Nations and the European Union condemned the attack.

"Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process," said Gordon Johndroe, foreign affairs spokesman for President George W. Bush.

Richard Haass, president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said the attack reveals "one of the fundamental realities of Pakistan today is that the government is not in total control of the country."

The bloodshed marred what had been a jubilant day for Bhutto. The 54-year-old politician wept for joy after her arrival.

"I dreamt of this day for so many months, and years. I counted the hours, the minutes and the seconds just to see this land, sky and grass. I'm so emotionally overwhelmed," Bhutto said at the airport, dressed in green with a white head scarf to match the national flag of Pakistan.

Bhutto had paved her route back to Pakistan through negotiations with Musharraf, a longtime political rival whose rule she has often condemned but whose proclaimed mission to defeat Islamic extremism she shares.

Their talks yielded an amnesty covering the corruption charges that made Bhutto leave Pakistan, and could lead to them forming a political alliance seeking to unite moderates in January parliamentary elections for a fight against militants allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Musharraf won re-election to the presidency in a controversial vote this month by the nation's lawmakers, but the victory is being challenged in court. The Supreme Court will rule soon on whether he was eligible to compete in the vote, since he also holds the post of army chief.

My god!! Didn't she expect suicide bombers to be in the crowd? It was a disaster waiting to happen!

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

AM,

She is a master politician and knows how to use events to her maximum advantage.

That is why I do not like career politicians.

No matter how many are reported dead, it is most unfortunate and this waste of human lives is all at the altar of the political power fest!

And worse still, after the election is over and these unfortunate dead used as rallying whip, how many of the dead would be remembered or their families cared for, for their sacrifice to the altar of the political power ride?

 

[Flintlock]

AM,

She is a master politician and knows how to use events to her maximum advantage.

That is why I do not like career politicians.

No matter how many are reported dead, it is most unfortunate and this waste of human lives is all at the altar of the political power fest!

And worse still, after the election is over and these unfortunate dead used as rallying whip, how many of the dead would be remembered or their families cared for, for their sacrifice to the altar of the political power ride?

So, Salim, what alternative do we have to career politicians?

We don't.

All we can hope for is that the people in our countries become less likely to be tricked by clever speeches by demagogues that hit the emotions rather than the intellect.

Until that happens, let us just enjoy the show.

 

[Keysersoze]

I think I read somewhere that if parties like the PPP love democracy so much they should practice it amongst their own parties and elect their party leaders instead of having it as a birthright........

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

So, Salim, what alternative do we have to career politicians?

We don't.

All we can hope for is that the people in our countries become less likely to be tricked by clever speeches that hit the emotions rather than the intellect.

Until that happens, let us just enjoy the show

True, one has to exist with career politicians.

That is why the Parliament is such an interesting circus!

And that is why, one day you have the nuke deal and the next day you don't and the third day, you are told it is still not dead.

They fool everyone all the time challenging the veracity of the adage - You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

True, one has to exist with career politicians.

That is why the Parliament is such an interesting circus!

And that is why, one day you have the nuke deal and the next day you don't and the third day, you are told it is still not dead.

They fool everyone all the time challenging the veracity of the adage - You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

I beg to disagree - not all situations warrant similar approaches, the circus of parliament is only good for entertainment when its performers do not toy with the lives of innocents - at that point an allegory to the gladiatorial spectacles of the Colosseum would be more apt.

Political point scoring I can live with, wasting an opportunity to reform a country, and inviting more bloodshed (if the accusations of govt. involvement continue, there is only one party in Karachi they will be directed against, and the ensuing violence will be horrible), letting terrorists off the hook - this is the deliberate sacrifice of a nation and its dreams at the altar of greed for power.

This is no circus! As much as I hate the idea, if she and the PP continue on this path, I am all for Martial Law - the alternative seems far worse.

 

[karpov]

Indeed One of the saddest and blackest days in Pak's history. I think the time has come that our beleagured intelligence agencies whould find a way to tackle these suicide bombers, who thin kthey are going ti heaven and will be greeted by those innocent killed in the bomb.
We should follow the strategy of ISrael. No matter how we all hated their strategy of killing the family of suicide bombers bu lets face it. It worked! Our crippled intelligence network should start hunting down Suicide bombers families and should hang them on craned like they do in Iran.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Indeed One of the saddest and blackest days in Pak's history. I think the time has come that our beleagured intelligence agencies whould find a way to tackle these suicide bombers, who thin kthey are going ti heaven and will be greeted by those innocent killed in the bomb.
We should follow the strategy of ISrael. No matter how we all hated their strategy of killing the family of suicide bombers bu lets face it. It worked! Our crippled intelligence network should start hunting down Suicide bombers families and should hang them on craned like they do in Iran.

The US and NATO cannot stop suicide bombers!

This is about reforming societies, and changing hearts and minds - our people cannot even decide if we should "fight" our "terrorist Muslim Brothers".

How wonderful, this yoke of Muslim Ummah!

More successful than the colonial powers wildest dreams in subjugating and emasculating us.

 

[UnKnOwN]

Bombing turns Bhutto's triumph to horror

By B.K BANGASH and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers 8 minutes ago

KARACHI, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto's triumphant return to Pakistan ended in horrific scenes of carnage beneath a mural declaring, "Long live Bhutto." AP Photographer B.K. Bangash was there. Here is his account.
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The first explosion sounded like a tire had blown out on a bus but as I moved closer to see, another much stronger blast hit — sending dozens of people running as balls of flames, dirt and debris erupted into the night sky.

A police van was in flames, the streets were littered with the bodies of the dead. Arms, legs and other body parts were everywhere. I heard a man calling desperately for his son. He begged me to help, but the child was no where to be found. Later I heard the boy, a 6-year-old, was dead.

He was one of scores of people killed in a suspected suicide attack that struck Bhutto's procession as it made its way for more than 10 hours through the streets of Karachi after she returned from eight years in exile.

Moving at a snail's pace through a crowd of hundreds of dancing and cheering supporters, the truck carrying Bhutto was about 10 miles from the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, when the first explosion struck shortly before midnight.

I ran toward the truck and was about 20 yards away when the second thunderous blast hit.

Most of the victims were men, many of whom had been driving alongside the procession on motorcyles, though I saw the bodies of at least two children.

Limbless victims cried out to strangers for help in the darkness. Parents frantically searched for missing children as the flames sent waves of heat through the streets, fanning the smell of blood in the air.

About 20 minutes later — it seemed like an eternity — the scream of ambulance sirens pierced the chaos.


Yes, I love the sympathy shes getting