Benazir slams clampdown on supporters

LONDON— Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto condemned on Tuesday a crackdown on supporters preparing to welcome her home this week, saying 11 people had been shot and injured.

Ms Bhutto also said there was a risk of an assassination attempt on her when she returns from a self-imposed exile to Karachi on Thursday, saying she was wrangling with Pakistani authorities over security arrangements.

Speaking to Britain’s Sky News television, Ms Bhutto said she hoped lots of people would turn out to welcome her home, but added she had heard of restrictions on some people trying to travel to Karachi.

She said: “Unfortunately since last night the regime has started attacking our reception camps and there was a convoy that was leaving from a village and one of the government parties fired upon them and 11 people were injured.”

She said: “We had to get people together to donate blood and evacuate them to the hospital and the citizens of Punjab have started pulling down the banners and the wordings, so my representative got in touch with the national security adviser to have it conveyed to General Musharraf that this was against the spirit of national reconciliation.”

Ms Bhutto is to return from eight years of exile on Thursday after President Musharraf gave her amnesty against corruption charges, in an apparent step towards a power-sharing deal.

But Pakistani authorities increased pressure on her this week to delay her homecoming, as the former premier said she feared retired army officers may be plotting to kill her.

She reiterated that concern on Tuesday. “I don’t think about the risk of assassination,” she said, but added that her Pakistan People’s Party “has been in contact with the regime and we have asked them for full security measures”.

“We are wrangling with the regime on giving jammers. I am a former premier and I am entitled to security and we want these jamming devices so that roadside bombs and suicide bombers can’t actually access you.”

—AFP