What a mess
Benazir Bhutto was reportedly the target of three separate plots on her return to Pakistan. She had intelligence information on three specific individuals who wanted her dead, apparently including current members of the Pakistani government. FT:
In her first public remarks since the twin explosions that killed more than 130 of her supporters and injured more than 500, Ms Bhutto urged General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, to rein in militant groups, though she stopped short of directly accusing the government of facilitating the attack…No-one claimed responsibility, but Asif Ali Zardari, Ms Bhutto’s husband, held Pakistan’s intelligence agency to blame, while police were investigating whether the attack was connected to al-Qaeda linked militants in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
Shortly after the attack, Ms Bhutto’s spokesman called for the dismissal of the head of Pakistan’s intelligence bureau, the main intelligence service for internal duties. Ms Bhutto did not echo this call, but said: “Our internal situation is not being efficiently handled”. A senior leader from her Pakistan People’s Party said she would seek a revamp of the country’s top security hierarchy, including some officials that she suspects of having links to Islamist militant groups.
Militants linked to al-Qaeda, angered by Ms Bhutto’s support for the US war on terror have threatened to assassinate her, and officials say there were intelligence reports of plots by three separate groups…
Ms Bhutto said information on a possible attack against her had been provided by a friendly foreign government ahead of her return to Pakistan, adding that she knew who her enemies were even if they hid themselves behind ”seven veils”. She claimed to have named three individuals planning to target her in a letter to Gen Musharraf earlier this week, but refused to identify them publicly.
So opposition politician Bhutto has multiple assassination plots involving the Pakistan government. Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf has survived half a dozen assassination attempts, at least two of which involved Pakistan’s armed forces. Things are so bad for Musharraf that he travels with the next three in succession to him so that an attack on him kills them too, and his personal security detail is manned by non-Pakistanis, according to Richard Miniter.
You’d think that when both the President and the opposition candidate are targeted for assassination that it would be time to pretty much obliterate radical groups in Waziristan. But in addition to the logistical problems of doing so, how is it to be accomplished when (via AP) “militants claim to have support within government structures, including the army and intelligence agencies”?