ISLAMABAD, 18 October 2007 — Former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto pledged yesterday to restore democracy to Pakistan on the eve of her homecoming after eight years in exile, defying Al-Qaeda threats and government pressure to delay.
Calling herself a “people’s leader,” she insisted she would fly as planned today to her Karachi power base, where her party claims as many as one million supporters will welcome her home. “Yes, I am going,” the two-time premier told reporters in Dubai.
“Pakistan’s future is at stake and I am going to Pakistan with a mission to see a peaceful transition to democracy and bring hope to the oppressed people of my country for a new future.” Benazir, the first woman leader of an Islamic nation, is returning to lead her party in crucial general elections due in January following a deal she cut with President Pervez Musharraf that paves the way for power-sharing.
A Sindh government official said yesterday three groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Taleban were plotting suicide attacks against Benazir.
“There are intelligence reports that three different groups have plans to carry out attacks on Benazir,” Ghulam Mohammad Mohtaram, home secretary of Sindh province, said.
Some 20,000 government security personnel were being deployed along the route from Karachi’s airport to the site near the tomb of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah where Benazir planned to address a rally, Mohtaram said.
The official said the suicide attacks were being planned by Pakistani jihadi groups linked to Al-Qaeda and a Pakistani Taleban group headed by Baitullah Mehsud.
Mehsud’s fighters are already holding more than 200 Pakistani troops hostage in Waziristan, a tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, having captured them in late August.
Benazir has said that if she was in power she would allow US forces to strike against Al-Qaeda targets in Pakistani territory.
