Former PM Benazir Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt last week, has said that Prez Musharraf had warned her before her return to Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt last week, has said that President Pervez Musharraf had warned her before her return to Pakistan from exile last week that four suicide squads had been sent to kill her.
Since the suicide attack on her convoy on Friday that killed nearly 140 people and injured hundreds more, Bhutto has said that three senior officials and elements linked to late military dictator Gen Zia-ul-Haq were behind attempts to assassinate her.
Asked whether she was worried about the threat from a suicide bomber while her motorcade was making its way through the streets of Karachi following her homecoming on Thursday Bhutto said on 'Today' show of NBC TV: "That's right. I had been cautioned.
"General Musharraf had asked me to delay my return to Pakistan, and he had very kindly shared with me information that he had received about four possible suicide squads being sent to kill me."
Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had both asked Bhutto to defer her return to Pakistan after eight years in self-exile but she had rejected this suggestion.
Bhutto referred to the three officials in a formal complaint filed with police in Karachi on Sunday but did not identify them.
The leading newspaper The News quoted sources to identify them as Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, who is also the cousin of president of ruling PML (Q)Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and Intelligence Bureau chief Brig (retired) Ejaz Shah.
Insisting that she has no regret in coming back to Pakistan in spite of the horrific incident that left at least 140 persons dead, Bhutto said that the militants have to be stopped and she has taken on the choice of trying to save her country.
"I don't..." Bhutto replied when asked whether she regretted coming back to the country in light of what happened.
"I knew an attempt would be made...I knew people would be at risk... And the people who came knew that there would be a risk. They put their lives on the line and I put my life on the line, and we did it because we believe in a cause. We want to save Pakistan, and we think saving Pakistan comes by saving democracy," Bhutto said in the interview.
When asked given all that had happened to her and her family members in Pakistan why she chose the present route, Bhutto replied: "Look into the eyes of the people who came to receive me at the airport. They were celebrating my return because they want hope. If I didn't come back, the 160 million people of Pakistan wouldn't have hope of a future free from terrorism."
"The militants want an Islamist takeover of Pakistan.They have to be stopped," she added.
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