World | Pakistan
A day of hope and terror on the road
I never knew that I would actually be so close to bomb blasts which killed around 139 people and left a few hundred injured, when I decided to join former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her flight back home.
- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:28 December 31, 2007
- Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto takes refuge in a bullet-proof car after explosions hit her convoy in Karachi. Suspected suicide bombers killed 139 people and injured hundreds.
- Image Credit: Reuters
I never knew that I would actually be so close to bomb blasts which killed around 139 people and left a few hundred injured, when I decided to join former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her flight back home.
Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bhutto boarded the plane from Dubai on October 18, ending her eight-year, self-imposed exile to avoid graft charges.
She landed in Karachi with more than a half million supporters waiting for her in the streets, with her slogan of ‘food, shelter and housing for all'.
It was undoubtedly the biggest reception any political leader got in the history of Pakistan. But it also proved to be the most unfortunate political gathering as it ended with the killing of 139 people in two suicide bomb attacks.
But Bhutto escaped unhurt as she was riding, with other top leadership of the party, in a bulletproof truck, which was also badly damaged.
When I met Bhutto at her residence in Emirates Hills, Dubai, on Eid Al Fitr, a few days before her historic return, she was concerned about the possibility of such an incident.
She told her party supporters to be vigilant during the rally and keep an eye on suspicious persons. But Bhutto was not afraid of going back despite the government warnings and militants' threats.
“I have given my word to the people of Pakistan and I always keep my promises,'' she told a press conference in Dubai a day before her departure. She also tried to offset the threat of Islamic extremists by saying that “no Muslim attacks a woman and those who do burn in hell''.
As the flight took off from Dubai, party supporters started chanting “Prime Minister Benazir'' and gave a hard time to the cabin crew.
She spent most of her time giving interviews to dozens of journalists who joined her from around the world aboard her return flight.
It was also the first time I saw this “iron lady'' weeping as she climbed down the stairs from the aircraft and stepped on the ground with determination to restore democracy and uproot militancy.
She left her family members, including husband Asif Ali Zardari and two daughters Asifa and Bakhtawar, in Dubai with her ailing mother Begum Nusrat Bhutto. Her son is studying at Oxford in the UK.
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