Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Photo / Reuters.
A hand grenade and a suicide bomb are believed to have caused the carnage that killed 133 people gathered to greet former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto yesterday.
Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out to greet Ms Bhutto, who had returned from eight years of self-imposed
exile to lead her country into national elections due in January.
Two blasts in quick succession rocked her motorcade as it edged through the crowd. Ms Bhutto, travelling in a truck reinforced to withstand bomb attacks, was unhurt.
"The first blast was caused by a hand grenade. The second was the suicide attack," Manzoor Mughal, a senior police official involved in the investigation, told Reuters.
"The attacker ran into the crowd and blew himself up."
Most of the casualties were supporters, and police in her security detail. A television cameraman was killed and several journalists were among the 256 wounded.
About 20,000 security personnel had been deployed to protect Ms Bhutto but the provincial governor said that in view of the "real threats", authorities had urged her party to wind up the procession faster.
"Unfortunately, the terrorists got their opportunity," governor Ishrat-ul-Ibad told Dawn Television.
Police announced a reward of five million rupees ($110,000) for information.
Al Qaeda-linked militants had threatened to assassinate Ms Bhutto because of her support for President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States in a global war on terrorism.
But her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of involvement, and many Pakistanis share his suspicions. In Dubai, he told Aryone World Television: "I blame the Government for these blasts. It is the work of the intelligence agencies."
The United States and other allies condemned the attack.
"There is no political cause that can justify the murder of innocent people," said US State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
The European Union urged authorities to find those responsible.
- Agencies
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