Dozens dead after car bomb in Karachi

Dave!

Was listening in the background earlier, to news of the former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto returning to Karachi after 8 years in exile...

Thousands of people turned up to welcome her back, and it seems at least 89 people are dead after 2 car bombs went off during the procession. The Bhutto wasn't hurt.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSISL4350120071018?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=69

KARACHI (Reuters) - Two explosions hit former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's convoy on Friday killing more than 20 people as she returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-imposed exile.

Television channels said Bhutto was safe and had left the truck that had been transporting her through roads thronged by hundreds of thousands of people.

Militants linked to al Qaeda, angered by Bhutto's support for the United States war on terrorism, had threatened to assassinate her.

Bhutto returned to lead her Pakistan People's Party into national elections meant to return the country to civilian rule.

Soon after arriving Bhutto, boarded the truck designed to withstand a blast in case of attack.

etc.........

Fox News are also reporting that 4 bullets were fired at the bullet-proof truck the PM was in.

wes

BBC are saying 125 killed and a 100 injured.
Link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7051804.stm

All I can say this is horrible. F***ing Taliban said they would try to kill her and they did tried and thankfully failed. Evil pieces of trash that they are they, killed a whole lot of innocent people in there attempt.

tallus

All I can say this is horrible. F***ing Taliban said they would try to kill her and they did tried and thankfully failed. Evil pieces of trash that they are they, killed a whole lot of innocent people in there attempt.

+1. Despicable bunch of animals.

Jip

I'd question the decision to go ahead with a public parade though. She knew there was a bounty on her head, and if someone like myself, thousands of miles away watching the 6.1 news could say to his wife that it's a bad decision as no doubt someone will try something, why did they go ahead with it ? I know you can't let terrorists spoil things too much but this was a very high risk thing to do.

wes

Well it seems to have been a huge up yours to the terrorists. It should also be noted her supporters knew the dangers as well, and still turned up in there 1000s.

Over the next few days, theres gonna be a huge blame game going on, with people blaming Bhutto and others blaming the security services, for what happened.

bonkey

wes wrote: »

F***ing Taliban said they would try to kill her and they did tried and thankfully failed. Evil pieces of trash that they are they, killed a whole lot of innocent people in there attempt.

Have they claimed responsibility, or have you just decided that they were behind it?

djpbarry

bonkey wrote: »

Have they claimed responsibility, or have you just decided that they were behind it?

It's difficult to see who else could be resposible. After all, she has the backing of the US.

wes

bonkey wrote: »

Have they claimed responsibility, or have you just decided that they were behind it?

Well they threatened just such an attack on her. So I may jumping to conclusions on this, but I reckon there most likely culprits considering there threats.

Its possible that Al Qaida, or some of her more violent political opponents or other elements planned this, but the Pakistan's Taliban leader threat makes them the most likely in my opinion.

RedPlanet

The "Pakistan's Taliban leader"?
This is reading like Fox News.

wes

RedPlanet wrote: »

The "Pakistan's Taliban leader"?
This is reading like Fox News.

They do exist, they have been responsible for several suicide attacks in Pakistan. They have been going around threatening people in the tribal area's who are acting unIslamic (well there definition of whats unIslamic). Btw I don't watch Fox news, but calling the people who subscribe to the Taliban ideology is hardly something extraordinary.

I am not one of these people who think the way to solve the problems in Pakistan is violence (however in the short term it may be necessary to arrest or even kill the most determined militants), but rather making sure that people in Pakistan can get a good education so they aren't taken in by Taliban types and also give them jobs so they can provide for there families.

RedPlanet

There are many islamist organisations in Pakistan.
The Taliban are Afghan.
They do not play a particularly pro-active role in Pakistan and have to stay onside of Waziristani tribes.

Maybe you should blame Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.

bonkey

wes wrote: »

Well they threatened just such an attack on her. So I may jumping to conclusions on this, but I reckon there most likely culprits considering there threats.

The reason I asked is because you yourself linked to a BBC article which includes the following statement:

Several Islamist groups, including pro-Taleban militants, had said they would attack Ms Bhutto on her return,

Now...from that, it seems to me that there are multiple groups who issued threats, but you are assigning blame to one of them.

Also, I wouldn't rule out the notion that the attack was carried out by some pro-current-regime faction in who's interest it is to ensure that no meaningful democratic challenger will arise.

wes

RedPlanet wrote: »

There are many islamist organisations in Pakistan.
The Taliban are Afghan.
They do not play a particularly pro-active role in Pakistan and have to stay onside of Waziristani tribes.

Maybe you should blame Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.

A lot of people in the tribal regions are ethnic Afghans as well btw. So calling militants from that part of the country Taliban is not a huge stretch, the militants in the tribal regions share a lot of the same beliefs of the Taliban as well.

You are right Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, could have done it as well.

wes

bonkey wrote: »

The reason I asked is because you yourself linked to a BBC article which includes the following statement:

Several Islamist groups, including pro-Taleban militants, had said they would attack Ms Bhutto on her return,

Now...from that, it seems to me that there are multiple groups who issued threats, but you are assigning blame to one of them.

Also, I wouldn't rule out the notion that the attack was carried out by some pro-current-regime faction in who's interest it is to ensure that no meaningful democratic challenger will arise.

Good point, I did jump to a conclusion.