LARKANA, Oct 27: Thousands of party faithful turned out to give an emotional welcome to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday when she set foot on the soil of her ancestral village after eight years. Chanting “Jeay Bhutto”, the People’s Party supporters cheered and clapped as Ms Bhutto visited the mazar of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in Garhi Khuda Baksh village.
Ms Bhutto waved from her bullet-proof vehicle to jubilant crowds, who were prevented from approaching the vehicle by security staff wielding AK-47s.
A huge portrait of Mr Bhutto hung from a pylon, and green, red and black PPP flags fluttered as her convoy whipped up a duststorm.
Ms Bhutto laid a shawl inscribed with Quranic verses and showered rose petals on her father’s grave. She then sat beside the tomb for almost an hour, reading the holy Quran.
“I feel very sentimental. I was eager to visit the tomb of my father, the Quaid-i-Awam, and offer prayers,” Ms Bhutto told reporters later.
She was then driven to her family residence, protected by security officials in jeeps mounted with machineguns.
“There is still a threat to my life, but Allah can protect everyone and I am not scared of these people (militants),” the PPP chief asserted.
“I now feel better about my security.”
ARRIVAL IN SUKKUR: Earlier, Ms Bhutto arrived in Sukkur from Karachi by aeroplane, adds Abbas Jalbani.
Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops were deployed at the airport for Ms Bhutto’s first foray outside Karachi since last week’s attack marred her return to Pakistan.
Thousands of PPP workers and supporters had started thronging the Sukkur airport hours before the PPP leader’s arrival, although the local party leadership had made no announcements about Ms Bhutto’s schedule.
Rumours were in circulation that the announcement of Ms Bhutto’s arrival in Sukkur was a decoy and that she had already reached Garhi Khuda Bakhsh or even that she may take a helicopter from Sukkur air-port.
After the plane touched the tarmac, hundreds of vociferous workers gatecrashed into the airport after dismantling three tiers of security cordon thrown by police, the Rangers and the Airport Security Force.
Ms Bhutto’s bullet-proof Nisar Khuhro-driven four wheeler --- followed and preceded by identical vehicles and accompanied by 24 police vans, two jeeps carrying police high-ups and two others carrying Rangers --- left the airport for Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhuuto in a caravan of two to three thousand vehicles. The fleet kept on swelling as more vehicles joined it on the road to Larkana.
Larkana DIG Muzaffar Shaikh advised Ms Bhutto to change her route because at the beginning of the road leading to Dakhan from Madeji, at least 5,000 people were waiting for her and the narrow turn was a security risk. Initially she refused but, after a 15-minute persuasion, she agreed to take the Gaheja-Ratodero link road.
Benazir Bhutto said that the threat to her life, coupled with “poor security arrangements”, made for her by the government could not keep her away from the masses as “I don’t care about my life”.
Talking to journalists accompanying her during the Karachi-Sukkur flight, Ms Bhutto said she was extremely happy to be able to return to her ancestral village and her constituency.
“When I announced my plan of return, I was told that I was endangering my life. Even President Musharraf advised me on TV that I should defer my homecoming. But I decided to face the threat and take the risk.”
She said that when she arrived in Karachi, three million people greeted her. “People want change.”
She added that for her, entire Pakistan was Larkana (her home town) and she would visit different parts of the country soon.
