The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, United Nations

The UN Security Council on Monday strongly condemned last week's suicide bombings that targeted former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto in Karachi and urged all states to help bring the perpetrators to justice.

In a non-binding statement, the 15-member body "underlines the need to bring perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism to justice and urges all states tto cooperate actively with the Pakistani authorities in this regard."

The council reiterated that "any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," added the statement which was read out by the council's president for this month, Ghana's UN Ambassador Leslie Christian.

AP from Islamabad adds: A senior government official on Monday rejected a call from Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto for US and British experts to help investigate the suicide attack on her homecoming procession from overseas exile.

Bhutto said Sunday she wanted the foreign experts to assist in the inquiry into the Thursday night bombing in Karachi, which killed 136 people, wounded hundreds more, and raised the question of whether campaign rallies would be allowed ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections. But Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said foreigners would not be brought into the investigation.

"I would categorically reject this," he said. "We are conducting the investigation in a very objective manner." Bhutto, who escaped the blast because she had stepped into her armored bus minutes before the bomb went off, has called for an independent inquiry, questioning why many streetlights were not working as her convoy inched its way through the darkness, and noting the chief investigator is a police officer who had been present as her husband was allegedly tortured while in custody on corruption charges in 1999.

"The inquiry should be led by Pakistan, but the government should call on foreign experts so that the killers t can be brought to justice without any doubts," she said Monday at the Karachi tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Her convoy had been heading to the tomb when the bombs went off. She also appealed to the militants, saying, "The terrorists should lay down their arms.