MIRAMSHAH, Oct 19: A well-known militant commander, said to have issued assassination threats against Benazir Bhutto earlier this month, denied any involvement on Friday in a Thursday attack that killed at least 133 people in Karachi.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Baitullah Mehsud told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location about the attack on Ms Bhutto’s motorcade as it edged through hundreds of thousands of supporters gathered to welcome her after years of exile.

Mehsud, who operates in Waziristan, had been widely reported as issuing threats against Bhutto after she announced plans to return to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

His fighters are currently holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers hostage, having captured them in late August.

Another Waziristan Taliban commander named Haji Omar also spoke this week of the Taliban’s intention to kill both Ms Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf because of their support for the US-led war on terrorism and deployment of American troops in Afghanistan.—Reuters