The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agencies, Karachi

At least 138 people were killed and more than 500 injured in two powerful suicide blasts in a bid to assassinate former prime minister Benazir Bhutto during her homecoming procession after eight years in self-imposed exile late Thursday night but the Pakistan People's Party chief escaped unhurt.

Two explosions went off a minute apart shortly after midnight near Karsaz close to the vehicle Benazir was travelling in, at the head of a procession of hundreds of thousands of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters who had flooded the streets of the city to welcome the return of their leader.

Benazir refused to use a bulletproof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her to the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, to address a rally.

At the time of the blasts she had gone inside the truck to take rest. However, several senior PPP leaders suffered splinter injuries.

She was immediately taken to her ancestral Bilawal House, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

Police Surgeon Karachi, Dr. Bashir Ahmed Shaikh confirmed 126 deaths.

Benezir Bhutto blamed militants Friday for trying to kill her and said she would not "surrender our great nation" to them.

Benazir said there were two attackers in the deadly bombing, and that her security guards found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest. Ahead of her arrival, she said, she was warned suicide squads were dispatched to kill her.

"There was one suicide squad from the Taliban elements, one suicide squad from al-Qaida, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taliban and a fourth - a group - I believe from Karachi," she said.

Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto condemned bomb attacks on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 138 people, saying the victims made the "ultimate sacrifice" for democracy. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, she also promised to remain in Pakistan.

Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf has also condemned the attack, describing it as a conspiracy against democracy. His government says Islamic militants are responsible. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have both issued threats against Benazir's life. But in an interview on the website of Paris-Match, Benazir herself blamed supporters of the late General Zia.

Unrest has broken out on the streets of Karachi, where large numbers of Benazir's supporters have clashed with police during protests against the attack.

The suicide attack that killed up to 138 people and shattered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's joyous return from exile bore the hallmarks of a warlord tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities said Friday. Forensic experts studied a severed head to determine the bomber's identity.

Baitullah Mehsud - a top militant leader on the unstable Afghan border - threatened this month to meet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks, according to local media reports. An associate of Mehsud, however, denied Taliban involvement.

The top security official in the province where the attack took place suggested that Bhutto's camp had not seriously considered the need for security for her return after eight years in exile.

"They got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," said the official, Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem.

Bhutto's procession crept toward the center of Karachi for 10 hours with supporters thronging her armored truck when a small explosion erupted near the front of the vehicle. That was quickly followed by a larger blast, destroying two police vans escorting the procession. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the vehicles on the left side of Bhutto's truck suffered the brunt of the blast, one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which drew international condemnation.

Manzur Mughal, the Karachi police officer in charge of the investigation, said detectives had established that a young man who threw a grenade blew himself up 22 seconds later next to the truck.

The attacker's head was found nearby and taken to a forensic lab to try to identify him, Mughal told The Associated Press.

Bhutto survived unscathed, but the explosions that went off near the bulletproof truck she was riding in turned her jubilant homecoming parade into a scene of carnage, ripping victims apart and hurling a fireball into the sky. The attack shattered the windows of her truck. She appeared dazed afterward and was escorted to her Karachi home.

Police on Friday collected forensic evidence including pieces of flesh and shoes from the site of the bombing. Bhutto's armored truck, which carried signs that read "Long Live Bhutto," was hoisted away using a crane. One side bearing a big portrait of the former premier was spattered with blood and riddled with shrapnel holes.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf phoned Bhutto Friday to express his shock and profound grief over the bombing and prayed for the former premier's safety and security, his spokesman said.

"The president expressed his strong resolve that a thorough investigation would be carried out in order to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.

Musharraf said earlier that he was "deeply shocked" by the attack and condemned it in the strongest possible terms as part of a "conspiracy against democracy," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Mohtarem said nuts, bolts and steel balls packed around the explosives had made the bombing so deadly. He said it was impossible to prevent more such attacks.

Mehsud's spokesman could not be reached for comment, but an alleged associate of the militant commander, Isa Khan, denied Taliban involvement.

"The government's secret agencies are involved in it. Taliban have no part in it," Khan told an AP reporter by phone from the volatile northwestern tribal town of Bannu, where he is believed to command pro-Taliban militants loyal to Mehsud.

"This was an effort to provoke common people and create hatred against the Taliban. We do not do anything that harm common people," he said.

Bhutto has made enemies of Islamic militants by taking a pro-American line and negotiating a possible moderate, U.S.-friendly alliance with Musharraf, a longtime political rival despite their shared liberal values. The attack cast a pall over Bhutto's talks with Musharraf and possible plans for such an alliance. Leaders of her party were meeting at her Karachi residence and Bhutto was expected to hold a news conference afterward.

It remained unclear whether the attack would stiffen the two leaders' resolve to fight militancy together or strain already bad relations between Bhutto and the ruling party.

Musharraf won re-election to the presidency in a vote this month by lawmakers that is being challenged in the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed for a new five-year presidential term, Musharraf has promised to quit the military and restore civilian rule.

Bhutto plans to contest parliamentary elections due in January, and has ambitions to win a third term as prime minister.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that he has asked the government to make the election campaign short after consultation with political parties, amid concern that large gatherings could be vulnerable to attacks. Police put Thursday's crowd at 150,000.

Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded.

Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said that 113 people died, including 20 policemen, and that 300 people were wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death tolls.

Sherpao asserted that authorities had done everything possible to protect the huge gathering of Bhutto supporters marking her return, but noted that electronic jammers fitted to the police escort vehicles were ineffective against a manually detonated bomb.

On the eve of Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaida.

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said on Dawn News television that he suspected that "elements sitting within the government" who would lose out if Bhutto returned to power were involved in the attack.

He did not elaborate, though Bhutto has accused conservatives in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and the security services of secretly supporting religious extremists.

But Musharraf's camp sounded conciliatory.

Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi said he doubted the attack would deflect Bhutto from her course.

"If someone thinks that by spreading this kind of terror they will stop the political process in Pakistan, I don't think that's correct, I don't think that will happen," Qureshi told the reporters.

Musharraf believes that "all political forces need to combine to face this threat which is basically the major, major issue that faces Pakistan," he said.

In Karachi, which lies in the far south of Pakistan and has been buffeted by militant attacks, schools were closed on Friday and traffic was thin.

Unrest broke out in two districts but did not appear serious. Hundreds of Bhutto supporters hurled stones at vehicles and shops during a funeral procession for two victims, forcing police to cordon off the area. Elsewhere, Bhutto supporters ordered shops to close and burned tires in the road.

Bhutto paved her route back to Pakistan through negotiations with Musharraf that yielded an amnesty covering the corruption charges that made Bhutto leave Pakistan.

Bhutto had brushed off militant threats, dismissing authorities' appeals for her to use a helicopter to travel into Karachi to reduce the risk.

"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai.