KARACHI, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) – A suicide bombing targeting former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto killed at least 125 people, turning her emotional homecoming parade after eight years in exile into a scene of carnage Friday. Bhutto was unhurt, escaping with her life as the blast ripped through the police escort for the parade in Karachi whose streets had been thronged with hundreds of thousands of her supporters.
It was the worst suicide attack in Pakistan’s history, casting an immediate shadow over hopes that her return with the approval of military ruler Pervez Musharraf might bring an end to months of political turmoil.
Blood and body parts were scattered widely across the scene and doctors at city hospitals struggled to keep pace.
“It was like walking through an abattoir,” an AFP photographer who had been following the parade said. “Some people were lying around intact, others were completely dismembered.”
Hospital officials said nearly 400 people were injured.
The attack came hours after Bhutto had flown in from Dubai, teary-eyed as she set foot on Pakistani soil for the first time since 1999, having shrugged off warnings that Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants would try to kill her.
“It was a