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Al-Qaida links cited in Bhutto bomb ASHRAF KHAN KARACHI, Pakistan - The midnight suicide attack that killed at least 136 people and shattered the homecoming of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto may be the work of al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities said Friday, as forensic experts studied the severed head of the alleged bomber to try to determine his identity. The attack — one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history — bore the hallmarks of militants allied with pro-Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud and al-Qaida, according to Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem, the top security official in Sindh province, where the attack took place. He suggested that Bhutto's camp had not seriously considered the need for security for her return after eight years in exile. "We were already fearing a strike from Mehsud and his local affiliates and this was conveyed to (Bhutto's Pakistan's) People's Party but they got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," Mohtarem said.
Bhutto's procession had been creeping 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 had borne the brunt of the blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. 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.
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