Benazir Bhutto
Monday August 9, 2004
The Guardian

”
Pakistan is a frontline state in the war against terrorism. Most of the leading terrorists have been arrested in Pakistan……,.
The positive part is that General Pervez Musharraf gets to play good cop and earn Washington’s pleasure to continue his dictatorship. The bad part is that eyebrows are raised as to why leading al-Qaida militants found it necessary to hide in a land run by Washington’s “key ally” in the war against terror.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, assassinations and suicide bombings have also been increasing domestically…….,.

None of the assassins has been arrested. Instead, public attention has been focused on five apparent assassination attempts against high-profile targets that have taken place since last December: two attacks on Gen Musharraf, and one each on the Karachi corps commander, the prime minister-designate, Shaukat Aziz, and the Baluchistan chief minister.

While the regime insists these were genuine assassination attempts, their pattern suggests something different. At most, they seem to have been attempts to frighten the targets. At worst, if the cynics are to be believed, the attacks were stage-managed for external consumption.

For example, in each case, the bombers used low intensity explosives. None of the people hurt or killed was of political value - though they were, of course, of personal and national value. These included innocent people escorting the apparent targets. The main targets escaped without a scratch. While it is welcome that they survived, the larger issue needs resolving.

The drivers in the corps commander’s and prime minister-designate’s cars were killed, but the other passengers escaped unscathed. It is difficult to believe that bombers would repeatedly use low-intensity explosives so that only one occupant of the car being attacked - or a person outside the car - would die. A public commission into these attacks is needed.”

· Benazir Bhutto is chairperson of the Pakistan People’s party and a former prime minister of Pakistan