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Bhutto visits ancestral
stronghold after attack
WSN Network
 Gahri Khuda Baksh (Pakistan): Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
arrived in her ancestral village on Saturday amid tight security in
her first public trip in Pakistan since suicide bombers attacked her
homecoming parade.
Several thousand people clapped and chanted ‘Benazir’ as the former
premier arrived in a bullet-proof jeep at the village in a remote
corner of southern Pakistan and immediately entered her family’s
mausoleum. Surrounded by security guards and party officials, she
laid flower petals and offered prayers at the tomb of her father,
the late prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Her father was deposed and later hanged in 1979 by a military
dictator.
“I am happy and delighted to be visiting my home town,” she earlier
told reporters. “I will go everywhere despite security threats,”
Bhutto said wearing a white dress and traditional Sindhi shawl.
Bhutto has vowed to stay in Pakistan despite last week’s blasts
which killed 139 people during her mass street procession in Karachi
to welcome her return after eight years in selfimposed exile. She
has pledged to lead her party in upcoming general elections, which
are seen as a key step to the nation’s return to democracy after
eights years of military rule.
Bhutto, the first female leader of an Islamic nation, has been based
in her heavily guarded compound in Karachi since the October 18
blasts, which delayed the scheduled trip to the village.
Several thousands on Saturday waved flags in the colours of her
party and cheered outside the mausoleum which was ringed by guards.
“We are very excited our leader is back. God bless her. She is our
hope, she is everything to us,” supporter Abdul Karim shouted
tearfully. The mausoleum is also the resting place of Benazir
Bhutto’s two brothers — Shahnawaz, who was poisoned in southern
France in 1987, and Murtaza, shot dead in Karachi in 1996.
31 October, 2007
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