Bombers kill 30 in Pakistan
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bombers kill 30 in Pakistan*
By Massoud Ansari in Rawalpindi
Last Updated: 1:57am GMT 25/11/2007
Simultaneous suicide blasts have hit the heart of Pakistan's security
establishment, bringing fresh turmoil as General Pervez Musharraf
prepared to resign as army chief and begin a new term as president.
At least 30 people died in the attacks, which targeted army and
intelligence officials in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, south of the
capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani policemen rush towards an explosion site, Bombers kill 30 in
Pakistan
Pakistani policemen rush towards an explosion site
They coincided with the announcement that Nawaz Sharif, the former prime
minister ousted by Gen Musharraf in a 1999 coup, would return from exile
on an aircraft scheduled to arrive this weekend.
The attacks were the first targeting security forces since the president
declared a state of emergency on November 3. He upset Western allies
with a brutal crackdown, which he insisted was needed to curb Islamic
militancy in the country.
Witnesses say that body parts were left strewn over the road after the
first blast, in which a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck
into a bus carrying several dozen intelligence agency personnel.
"There was a big bang, followed by shrieking and screaming," said
Mohammed Saleem Khokar, who was waiting at a nearby bus stop.
Minutes later, a second suicide bomber blew up his vehicle as guards
halted him outside the headquarters of the Pakistani army.
"When he was stopped by the security officials at this check post, he
pulled the trigger and blew himself up," said the military spokesman Maj
Gen Waheed Arshad. "Had he not been stopped, scores of people may have
been killed."
The Pakistani military indicated that the attacks could be part of a
wave of bombings in response to army offensives against extremist
religious leaders. A similar attack on a bus in August left almost 40
intelligence officials dead.
In October, a suicide bomber targeted the homecoming parade of Benazir
Bhutto, the opposition leader, in Karachi, killing 140 people.
Critics have accused Gen Musharraf, who says violence and extremism
justify his decision to impose a state of emergency, of exploiting
violence to crush political opponents and purge the country's judiciary
and ensure approval of his re-election as president.
He has said he will fulfil a long-standing promise and resign as army
chief this week, provided his second five-year term is confirmed - a
step now completed by Pakistan's election commission.
The president is widely expected to leave the 572,000-strong armed
forces in the hands of Gen Ashfaq Kayani, a trusted loyalist who Gen
Musharraf manoeuvred into pole position in a recent military reshuffle.
While Gen Kayani, an American-trained golfing enthusiast who has
established a rapport with Washington, is likely to ease concerns among
Pakistan's Western allies, his background as a former spy chief could
arouse suspicions among his own ranks.
Gen Musharraf's exit from the army is likely to do little to appease
opposition groups. They were expected to be joined by Mr Sharif, who has
pledged to rally efforts to challenge the president.
Officials from the two-time former prime minister's Pakistan Muslim
League told The Sunday Telegraph that the exiled politician was due to
arrive in his home city of Lahore this weekend. Mr Sharif tried in
September to return from Saudi Arabia - where he was banished seven
years ago after being convicted of corruption and hijacking - but was
deported immediately.
Muslim League officials said the Saudis were no longer willing to host
Mr Sharif, despite appeals from Gen Musharraf to keep him until after
next January's elections.
Thousands of Mr Sharif's party supporters were expected to receive him
at Lahore's airport, according to his spokesman, Khawaja Asif. "We have
mobilised the party from all over the country and we are expecting over
a million people," he said.
Although his return before tomorrow's deadline for election nominations
will qualify him to stand for office, Mr Asif said Mr Sharif would
organise a boycott of the vote unless emergency rule was ended within
the next four days.
"He [Gen Musharraf] is an outlaw, so why to give legitimacy to the bogus
process of elections he has initiated?" he said. "His ousting is a must
and we will continue our struggle until he is removed and brought to
justice."
Meanwhile, Ms Bhutto - having ruled out a power-sharing alliance with
Gen Musharraf that would have been welcomed by Britain and America as a
secular counter force to Islamic radicalism - said she was also
considering an election boycott.