Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto appeared in public Sunday for the first time since a deadly bomb attack on her homecoming convoy, visiting hospitalized victims and vowing that the assassination attempt would not force her into hiding.
Thursday’s attack, which killed at least 136 people and injured more than 200, was one of the deadliest in Pakistan’s turbulent history.
“We have to modify our campaign to some extent because of the suicide bombings,” Bhutto told a small group of journalists at her Karachi residence shortly after visiting bomb- blast victims at a Karachi hospital. “We will continue to meet the public. We will not be deterred.”
Bhutto called for an independent inquiry into the assassination attempt and asked again why streetlights were off when her convoy was inching its way through the darkness Thursday.
Bhutto also called on the international community for help in the investigation and repeated her assertion that extremists had infiltrated the government and its security apparatus.
“The closet supporters of militants and al-Qaeda are determined to stop the restoration of democracy because they see it as a threat to the structure of militancy they have put into place,” Bhutto said.
Bhutto spent about 15 minutes at Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital. She visited survivors and distributed money to them while vowing to fight for the rights of Pakistanis, according to Saimi Jamali, a senior doctor at the hospital.
“Prime Minister Benazir!” chanted hundreds of supporters outside as Bhutto, who was guarded by armed police, left the hospital for the Pakistan People’s Party stronghold of Lyari.
Bowing her head in prayer, she then visited the tomb of a Sufi saint in Lyari.
The People’s Party declared a national day of mourning Sunday for victims of the attack, in which a grenade explosion was followed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up with a device laden with shrapnel. Many of Bhutto’s guards were killed in the attack.
Thousands gathered for the prayer service in Karachi. Some shouted chants for revenge.
Bhutto met with women for separate prayers, urging mothers to fight against extremism.
“We want to establish such a society in which mothers must raise children who never carry weapons to kill innocent, poor and weak,” she said.
Muslim cleric Mufti Feroz Uddin led prayer services in Karachi, pleading for calm.
Police continued to question three men in the blasts. The men were linked to a vehicle that police believe was used.
