KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Two explosions early today rocked a convoy carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, turning a joyous celebration of her return from self-imposed exile into a bloodbath that left hundreds dead and injured.
Bhutto was not hurt in the attack, which reportedly killed more than 100 people and injured as many as 150. The numbers climbed steadily as officials sorted through shattered body parts.
Photos showed a shaken Bhutto being pulled from a truck. She was rushed to her home in Karachi.
The blasts, shortly after midnight, tore through the crowd surrounding the motorcade and sent flames into the night sky. Police said they thought at least one of the explosions was a suicide attack.
A Taliban commander had threatened to greet her return with suicide bombers.
“The United States condemns the violent attack in Pakistan and mourns the loss of innocent life there,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. “Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process.”
While in exile, Bhutto, 54, had reached a power-sharing alliance with President Pervez Musharraf.
Her plane landed in the early afternoon, and her convoy was slowly making its way from the airport to the city center. She returned by commercial flight from Dubai, where she has spent much of her eight-year exile.
She had arrived to a delirious welcome from flag-waving, drum-beating supporters who mobbed the airport and danced in the streets. Tens of thousands of supporters of her Pakistan People’s Party spent hours waiting in the sun, finding shelter under tents and canopies.
Many of those who traveled from elsewhere in Pakistan to welcome Bhutto spent the night in parks and traffic roundabouts so that security would not prevent them from watching her bulletproof vehicle pass by.
Bhutto, with a white head scarf draped loosely over her black hair, disembarked from the plane to cheers from supporters. She wiped tears from her eyes as she waved to the crowd that surged onto the tarmac.
Her convoy left the airport and approached the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, where Bhutto was scheduled to address the crowd.
It was there that the explosions took place. The first blast was described as small; the second was larger.
The former leader’s return marked a turbulent new phase in Pakistani politics. She has forged an alliance with the unpopular Musharraf, who is also chief of the army. But any power-sharing arrangement between the two could unravel, particularly if court challenges to Musharraf’s election to a new presidential term are upheld.
Bhutto intends to lead her party in parliamentary elections that are to take place by early next year and hopes to win a constitutional waiver to serve a third term as prime minister.
Karachi, the country’s largest city and Bhutto’s power base, was all but paralyzed by the homecoming.
