Bhutto calls for outside help with Pakistan blast probe

Bhutto calls for outside help on blast probe   

KARACHI: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto on Sunday called for international help with the probe into last week's devastating twin blasts during her homecoming parade that killed 139 people.   

"We want the government of Pakistan to seek the assistance of the international community," she said, at her home in Karachi.   

"They have anti-terrorism experts who have the technical expertise to investigate attacks of this nature," she said.   

"I have discussed (this) with the international community, which includes Washington and includes Britain, who have these experts," she said.   

A suicide bomb ripped through Bhutto's homecoming parade on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people gathered to cheer her return to Pakistan only hours earlier from eight years in self-imposed exile.   

Bhutto on Sunday reiterated her pledge to stay in Pakistan to campaign ahead of general elections in January, seen as a key step to restoring civilian rule in this Islamic republic of some 160 million people.   

"We will have to modify our campaign to some extent because of the suicide bombings but we are not going to stop our campaign to reach the public," she said.   

"The militants are trying to disrupt the political process because they do not want the people to be mobilised; they do not want the moderate majority of the people of Pakistan to stand up."   

Bhutto insisted the organisation of her homecoming celebrations was not a mistake despite the
carnage, and hit out at unknown Islamic militants blamed for the blasts that also injured 400 people.   

"I think that the rally showed that the people of Pakistan reject the militants and extremists, which shows that the people of Pakistan are not intimidated by bombs and threats," she said.   

"At the end of the day what the militants do is not a battle of ideas -- they do not have any confidence in their ideas, for them it is a battle of guns."   

Bhutto spoke to reporters before giving a short speech paying tribute to the victims of the bombing and saying her prayers.   

Bhutto had returned from eight years in self-imposed exile after President Pervez Musharraf dropped corruption charges against her in the hope her popularity could shore up his grip on power ahead of the crucial polls.