Deadly blast at Pakistan meeting

16/02/2008| IslamWeb

A suicide bomber has killed 37 people after a meeting of supporters of murdered ex-PM Benazir Bhutto's party, Pakistan's interior ministry says.

The attack, on the last day of campaigning ahead of general elections on Monday, also wounded 90.

It took place in Parachinar, the main town of the tribal region of Kurram in north-west Pakistan.

Violence and vote-rigging fears have marred campaigning for the polls, which were postponed after Mrs Bhutto died.

Mrs Bhutto, the head of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was assassinated in Rawalpindi on 27 December.

President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that he was confident the elections would be free and fair.

'Severe emergency'

The blast in Parachinar took place as people were gathering outside the office of a local politician - an independent candidate who supports the PPP - after an election meeting had finished.

Eyewitnesses said a car was driven into the crowd and blown up, scattering body parts across the street.

Most of the victims appeared to be PPP members, Mushtaq Hussain, an administrative official in the Kurram area told the Associated Press news agency.

A PPP supporter, Zafar Ali, told AP: "Several of our party members are lying in a pool of blood. We are taking the injured and dumping them into pickup vans to bring them to the hospital."

Mrs Bhutto's successor as party leader, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said he condemned the attack "with all the spirit of democracy".

"We still ask people to stay calm because this is again their way of making us lose track and give up the path of democracy," he said.

Correspondents say the area where the attack took place is a volatile border region that has seen rising Islamist militancy in recent months.

'Conspiracy'

In a speech broadcast on state-run television on Saturday, President Musharraf said Pakistan would have a "stable, democratically elected government" which would be used to "ensure a successful fight against terrorism and extremism".

A day earlier, Pakistan's Attorney General Malik Qayyum had rejected allegations that he had said there would be massive rigging in the election.

Human Rights Watch released an audio recording in which a voice, which it said was Mr Qayyum's, could be heard saying "they will massively rig to get their own people to win".

Mr Qayyum, a close ally of President Musharraf, denied making the comments and said the allegations were "a conspiracy against Pakistan".

The president will not be standing in the parliamentary vote on 18 February.

But the former military leader could face a serious challenge to his authority if the vote produces a hostile parliament packed with his opponents.

The PPP says it will consider street protests if it suspects electoral fraud.

President Musharraf has however warned against any such action.

He stepped down as army chief late last year and this election is seen as a key step in Pakistan's transition from military to civilian rule.

Correspondents say fears of violence have kept many Pakistanis from attending rallies during the election campaign.

Security is high in the run-up to Monday's polls, with some 81,000 soldiers deployed to support police across the country.

In separate incidents:

·  A man equipped with a suicide jacket and explosives was arrested in the southern city of Hyderabad on Saturday, police said.

·  Police fired tear gas at a rally of about 1,000 people from opposition parties boycotting next week's elections in the south-western town of Quetta on Saturday, police and witnesses said.

·  The army said a suicide bomber rammed a car into a checkpoint outside an army media centre in the Swat Valley in north-western Pakistan, killing two civilians, the French news agency AFP reported.

PHOTO CAPTION

Bilawal Bhutto