Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto received a warning just half an hour before Thursday night's devastating attack on her homecoming procession that a suicide bomber would target the truck in which she was traveling. The Times newspaper of London has reported.
At least 165 people were killed as a suicide bomber targeted Bhutto's motorcade as it was making its way through thousands of supporters who welcomed her back to the country after eight years in exile.
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Quoting Bhutto's interview to a French magazine, the report said many of those killed were young policemen who tried to block the path of the suicide bomber after a warning was received by police and passed on to her entourage by the intelligence services.
Bhutto also accused high-ranking members in Pakistan's intelligence services were behind the attack. She said Islamic militants could not mount such a sophisticated attack "from a mountain cave".
Other reports also quoted the police as saying that they had found the severed head of the bomber, who had been carrying some 20kg of explosives. The Interior Ministry said that the first blast had been caused by a hand grenade.
Extremists can strike whenever they want
The Times report quoted Bhutto as saying in an interview with Paris Match in her Karachi residence: "The Talebs and the Islamists extremists cannot act alone. They can't commit their suicide attacks from a mountain cave. They need logistics, food, weapons and someone to supervise them."
She told the magazine that she knew "exactly" who wanted to kill her -- former officials from the regime of the late General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who overthrew her father 30 years ago and oversaw the trial which ended in his execution.
In the interview, Bhutto also rejected suggestions that she might be held responsible for the attacks, given warnings from the Musharraf Administration that she would be targeted.
