Some elements defending suicide attacks: Benazir

CNews KARACHI: Former Prime Minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto said Monday she was dissatisfied with probe into attempt on her life made through 18-October suicide attack on PPP caravan in which she was unharmed but 139 people were killed and over 450 others were injured.A complete independent inquiry should be ordered into 18-Oct carnage, as we are not satisfied with the present mode of inquiry, Bhutto said this while addressing a press conference at Bilawal House.Some elements are present in the country who are defending suicide attacks, however, such elements should be discouraged and prevented from doing so, she said. Earlier, she called upon the terrorists to surrender arms and in case of some grievances they should opt for negotiations with a view to seek the redressal instead of resorting to terrorist activities to kill the innocent people.Benazir visited the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan's founder, making her second public outing in as many days after a bloody suicide attack on her convoy. Wearing a white headscarf and black tunic, Bhutto was swamped by security men and media as she arrived at Karachi's Jinnah Mausoleum -- the resting place of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who led the country to independence in 1947. "When Pakistan was formed, people sacrificed their lives, as they did in the attempt on my life last week," she told reporters at the imposing marble dome in the city centre. The mausoleum, where she also offered prayers, had been the intended finishing point of her homecoming procession last week before it was cut short by the blasts. "I have come to pay homage to the father of the nation. We believe in the power of the people," she added. Bhutto also renewed a call for the Pakistani government to draft in experts from the international community to investigate last Thursday's bombings. The government refused that request on Monday. "We reject the demand for involvement of foreign experts in the probe. Our own law enforcement agency personnel are capable of investigating the incident," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. "In the past also they have investigated attacks on presidents and prime ministers and the culprits were traced," Sherpao told reporters. Bhutto on Sunday visited survivors in hospital, the first time she had left her family home in Karachi since the internationally condemned attack.