Bhutto to continue going to masses

Photo: Bhutto to continue going to masses

Bhutto to continue going to masses

No deadly bomb attack will make Benazir Bhutto give up campaigning for coming elections, but she will no longer hold processions.

Bhutto announced plans to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Nov. 9, even though a suicide blast there killed seven people Tuesday. An Oct. 18 bomb attack targeting her homecoming parade after eight years in exile killed 145 people in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.

"There are two options," Bhutto told reporters while visiting some of those wounded in the Karachi bombing. "Either we have to sit home due to this (threat), or keep contacting people. And I will continue to go to the masses, but address them at a public meeting."

But the violence was enough to change one part of her strategy; she vowed she "will not hold processions."

Bhutto repeated claims that members of Pakistan's shadowy intelligence services orchestrated the attack on her caravan, blaming operatives linked to the late military ruler Gen. Zia Ul-Haq. The government denies the claims.

"These remnants of Zia are the hidden hands trying to stop me," Bhutto said.

Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - the country's first democratically elected leader - was overthrown by Zia in 1979 and hanged on murder charges two years later.

Bhutto claimed the attack on her convoy was carried out by a car bomb, not a suicide attack as police believe. She said it exploded in a white car as her convoy neared. Police have yet to arrest anyone over the bombings.