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Pakistan in turmoil as 78 die
01/11/2007 17:15 - (SA)
Sargodha, Pakistan - A suicide bomber on Thursday killed eight Pakistan air force personnel and 70 militants died in clashes, amid mounting fears that President Pervez Musharraf could declare emergency rule.
Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a coup in 1999, faces not only a tide of Islamist violence but also an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his controversial win in an October 6 presidential election.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto, who made a surprise trip to Dubai on Thursday just two weeks after returning from exile, said that there were rumours Musharraf may impose a state of emergency if the court rules against him.
The violence continued on Thursday when a bomber rammed his motorcycle into an air force bus in the central city of Sargodha, killing eight officers and wounding 40 people, interior ministry spokesperson Brigadier Javed Cheema said.
"It was a suicide attack and the target was the bus which was carrying the air force officials," chief military spokesperson Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
Police found the bomber's severed head while other pieces of his body were stuck to the exterior of the mangled bus at the site of the attack in Punjab province, witnesses said.
It was the second such blast this week in Pakistan. A suicide attack near Musharraf's army office in Rawalpindi on Tuesday killed seven people, and police said it was tied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Taliban.
Bloody clashes in wild tribal areas
Militants have killed more than 400 people in attacks since government forces raided the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, while there have been bloody clashes in Pakistan's wild tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
The unrest in the tribal belt recently spilled over into the former tourist area of Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan, where followers loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric have been fighting security forces for the past week.
Fresh clashes broke out after a ceasefire collapsed in the region on Wednesday, and the army said that security forces backed by helicopter gunships had killed 60 to 70 militants in the past two days.
"It is going on and helicopters are still engaged by law enforcing agencies," the army's Waheed said.
Pakistan moved 2 500 troops into Swat last week to counter radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who is also known as "Mullah Radio" for his speeches on his private radio station, in which he calls for a holy war on the authorities.
While Musharraf faces a growing challenge from the militants, he is also awaiting a Supreme Court decision on whether his victory in last month's presidential vote was valid.
The court said on Thursday that it was now unlikely to rule by the end of this week as expected and that a verdict is not likely before November 12 - just three days before his current term is due to end.
He had pledged to step down as army chief by that date if he won another five-year term in last month's election, but has not said what he will do if the Supreme Court overturns his victory.
- AFP
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