The Hindu : Front Page : Benazir visits injured in hospital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Benazir visits injured in hospital

Nirupama Subramanian

Emerges from Karachi home after Friday’s assassination attempt

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto emerged from her Karachi home on Sunday, for the first time after she narrowly escaped a suicide attack on her, to visit those injured in the attack and sympathise with the families of party workers killed.

Ms. Bhutto’s visit to a Karachi hospital and later to the PPP stronghold of Lyari also seemed to send out the message that she would not allow the threats to her life to ‘house arrest’ her or restrict her political activities beyond the absolutely essential security requirements.

The PPP leader arrived at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in the white bullet-proof car that carried her away unhurt from the site of the attack on Friday. Television footage showed rings of gun-toting PPP activists and armed police escorting her in and out of the hospital.

She also made a surprise visit to Lyari to condole with the families of the dozen people from the vast lower-income neighbourhood that considers itself Ms. Bhutto’s extended family. She stopped at a shrine in the area and prayed for the dead.

Speaking to journalists at the hospital, Ms. Bhutto, who has blamed three individuals connected to the government for the attack on her — she did not name them — said the absence of street lights on the route of her procession indicated “sabotage.”

It was the government’s responsibility to ensure the security of the country’s political leaders.

Earlier, a delegation of PPP leaders went to the police station to express dissatisfaction with the FIR filed by the police. The team said they should have asked Ms. Bhutto to file it as she and the PPP were the victims of the attack. They also handed in a statement demanding speedy investigation.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told journalists in the capital that there was “some progress” in the investigation into the attack.

The attack fitted a pattern that was also seen in other bombings in the country, he said.

The government blames Islamist militants for the attack, but has not pointed at any particular group. Newspapers reported an Al-Qaeda commander Beithullah Mehsud issuing a death threat to Ms. Bhutto before she arrived here. After the attack, he denied responsibility for it.

Police are said to be questioning three men picked up in south Punjab in connection with the blasts.

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