Bhutto blames government for militant threat

[David]

AP


LARKANA, Pakistan - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto accused the government Sunday of failing to crush Islamic militants, days after a suicide bombing killed 56 people during prayers in a mosque.

The sharp criticism from the former prime minister came as the campaign heated up for next month's parliamentary elections, with politicians addressing rallies around the country.

Meanwhile, a suicide bombing attack on a military convoy killed at least five civilians and one soldier in troubled northwest Pakistan, the army spokesman and police said.

Thirteen soldiers and four civilians were also wounded in the attack in the town of Mangora in Swat district, where security forces have carried out several operations against followers of a pro-Taliban radical Islamic cleric, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told The Associated Press.

Bhutto, speaking to 25,000 supporters in her hometown of Larkana, said the ruling party of President Pervez Musharraf's government bore the blame for the rise of Islamic militancy in the Muslim country during its reign.

"Militants gained power, and the government's legitimacy weakened," Bhutto said.

Though Pakistan is a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have extended their influence over parts of the volatile northwest in the past two years.

They have launched numerous suicide attacks in recent months, usually targeting security officials and their families.

In the latest attack a suicide bomber, apparently targeting former Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, blew himself up Friday in a village mosque. Sherpao said the blast killed 56 people.

As interior minister, Sherpao had helped lead the government's fight against militants. He survived another suicide attack eight months ago.

Sherpao, who is also running for Parliament in the Jan. 8 elections, said the latest bombing would not deter him from campaigning.

"I have a cause and it is to serve my country," he told reporters in Peshawar, a city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.

Bhutto escaped two suicide attacks in October, when she returned to her country after eight years in exile.

Another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, held a rally Sunday in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, weeks after returning from Saudi Arabia where he had been exiled after Musharraf ousted Sharif's government in a 1999 coup.

Addressing supporters from his Pakistan Muslim League-N party at the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sharif told supporters that voting for his party would help oust Musharraf, who declared emergency rule on Nov. 3, giving the government stronger powers. Musharraf lifted the state of emergency on Dec. 15.

"We will ensure the rule of law," said Sharif, who is campaigning even though he has been barred from running for Parliament by the Election Commission for his alleged involvement in a corruption case and other charges.

"I promise that I will strive to put Pakistan back on the path of democracy, because we need the rule of law, not a dictator," Sharif said.

The government said Sunday it would push ahead with its fight against al-Qaida and Taliban militants, and would work to ensure a peaceful election campaign despite the mosque attack.

"Pakistan is a front-line state in the war on terror. Such attacks cannot deter our resolve," Information Minister Nisar Memon said on state-run Pakistan Television.

The blast shook up the campaign, but Memon said Pakistan would hold the vote as scheduled, and the government would take all possible measures to ensure candidates' safety.

Musharraf has asked the country's security agencies to find those behind Friday's bomb attack on Sherpao, who is a candidate in the election.





Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto waves to her supporters in Larkana, Pakistan on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007.

[SuperScout]

For all of her years in exile, it appears that Benazir Bhutto hasn't learned a thing about the real world, being content to live in a fantasy land peopled by reasonable humans, while being aloof from the subhuman species that straps bombs to their bellies and dies in very public places. Her paradigm is still stuck in the 20th century - there earlier part - where honorable men (and women) could sit and reason together, to bridge gaps in cultural misunderstandings. She fails to comprehend, much like our earlier administration, that the terrorists acts are to be treated not as a criminal act, but an act of war, and that a different set of rules apply. Some of these rules are being written, even as we speak, because of the basic fluidity of the war against terrorists is a very moving set of targets.