Benazir under threat, banned from leaving Pak

Islamabad: Two aides of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto have alleged female suicide bombers have threatened to kill her and the government has banned her from leaving the country.

The government has put Benazir on the Exit Control List (ECL), banning her from leaving the country, the opposition leader’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar alleged.

Babar said the Pakistan People's Party, which Benazir heads, had written to the Interior Ministry to remove her name from the ECL. He described the government action as illegal, unconstitutional and against fundamental rights.

Local TV channels have said that Benazir plans to fly to Dubai to visit members of her family in the near future.

Benazir had filed a report with the police naming three people behind the attack on her procession shortly after midnight Thursday, which left at least 139 people dead and over 500 injured. She also asked the government to seek help from international terrorism experts in the probe, saying she was not satisfied with the investigation so far.

The government rejected her demand and said that the local investigators were capable of conducting the inquiry.

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Farooq Naik, a senior lawyer and member of Senate, said Benazir had received a letter that threatened to kill her. The letter was written by the leader of a female suicide squad, Naik told Dawn News channel.

The government has dismissed her allegations and Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has said that he believes extremists from Pakistan's restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan were behind the attack on Benazir 's motorcade.

Benazir has said she is mulling a "virtual" campaign for Pakistan's upcoming general election that will use phone messages and taped speeches to avoid violent attacks like the suicide bombing at her homecoming rally in Karachi last week.

"Intimidation by murdering cowards will not be allowed to derail Pakistan's transition to democracy," Benazir wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "We are now focusing on hybrid techniques that combine individual and mass voter contact with sharp security constraints," she said.

(With IANS and PTI)