Below are excerpts from some published news reports about Shaheed Benazir Bhutto's apprehensions and accusations about her possible killers since the terrorist attack on her Karachi rally on October 19, 2007

It was a story CNN’s Wolf Blitzer hoped he would never have to report — an email sent through an intermediary to him by Benazir Bhutto complaining about her security. Conditions of use: only if she were killed.

Ms Bhutto wrote to Wolf Blitzer that if anything happened to her, “I would hold (President Pervez) Musharraf responsible.”

Mr Blitzer received the email on Oct 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and long-time Washington spokesman for Ms Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life on Oct 18.

Benazir Bhutto wrote to Blitzer: “I have been made to feel insecure by his (Musharraf’s) minions,” that specific improvements had not been made to her security arrangements, and that the president was responsible.

Blitzer agreed to the conditions before receiving the e-mail. He said on Friday that he called Siegel shortly after seeing it to see if there was any way he could use it on CNN, but was told firmly it could only be used if she were killed. Siegel could not say why she had insisted on those conditions.

Blitzer reported on the e-mail late on Thursday. He noted that Ms Bhutto had written a piece for CNN.com that mentioned her security concerns and that American politicians had tried to intervene on her behalf to make her feel safer. “I didn’t really think that it was a story we were missing out on,” he said. “I don’t think the viewers were done any disservice by my trying to hold on to this.”

Wolf Blitzer was the only journalist sent such a message, Siegel said. He also sent the e-mail to Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.

Siegel said he did not believe Ms Bhutto’s opinions had changed since she wrote the e-mail. Her message specifically mentioned she had requested four police vehicles surrounding her vehicle when travelling; Siegel said it seemed evident from pictures taken at the assassination scene that the request was not fulfilled.

Ms Bhutto did not necessarily believe that President Musharraf wanted her dead, but felt many people around him did, he said.

Her husband contacted Siegel on Thursday to remind him about the e-mail message and to make sure it got out, he said. 

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto on Friday (October 19, 2007) condemned the suicide attack on her rally (in Karachi) and blamed it on what she termed ‘Zia remnants’. She said that before returning home, she had written to President Pervez Musharraf that more than three officials were planning suicide attacks on her.

“The attack was a message sent by the enemies of democracy to all the political parties of the country. It was intended to intimidate and blackmail all the political forces and elements working for democracy and human rights. It was a warning not only to me and the PPP but to all political parties; indeed to the entire civil society.”

“On Oct 16, before returning home, I wrote a letter to Gen Musharraf in which I informed him that if anything happens to me as a result of these attacks, then I will neither nominate the Afghan Taliban, nor Al Qaeda, not even Pakistani Taliban or the fourth group. I will nominate those people who, I believe, mislead the people. I have spelt out names of such people in the letter,” she said. “I have named three people, and more, in that letter to Gen Musharraf. I have named certain people with a view to the attack that took place yesterday so that if I was assassinated, who should be investigated.” She alleged that more attacks were being planned on her life. She said her apprehension was that a strike would be made ……..“The modus operandi will be that selected people will be planted in the police department and posted near my house. Perhaps, commandos will be sent in the garb of a rival political party and blamed for the attack.”

Ms Bhutto said she had shared this piece of information with Gen Musharraf and was confident the government would take pre-emptive measures.

 

Looking pale and shaken the day after she survived a suicide bomb attack, the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Friday that she had warned the Pakistani government that suicide bomb squads were going to go after her on her return to the country and that it had failed to act on the information. 

Ms Bhutto pointed the finger at government officials who she said were sympathetic to the militants and were abusing their powers to advance their cause. She did not identify them on Friday, but said she had in a letter to the government this Tuesday. It was not clear if she was implicating the officials directly or accusing them of dragging their feet on her warning. “I am not accusing the government, but I am accusing certain individuals who abuse their positions, who abuse their powers,” she said.

Aides close to Ms. Bhutto said that one of those named in the letter was Ijaz Shah, the director general of the Intelligence Bureau, another of the country’s intelligence agencies and a close associate of General Musharraf.

Mr. Shah hung up when asked by telephone for a reaction to the allegations.

ISLAMABAD: October 24 (PTI) Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto has named four well-known persons, including Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and former ISI chief Hamid Gul, as those who pose a threat to her life in a letter to President Pervez Musharraf, the media here reported today.

In the letter written on October 16, two days before she returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-exile, Bhutto said she feared there was a threat to her life from Elahi, Gul, Hassan Waseem Afzal, the former Deputy Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and Intelligence Bureau chief Brig (Retd) Ijaz Shah, Geo TV reported.

In a press conference held hours after the suicide attack on her motorcade in Karachi on Thursday night that left nearly 140 people dead, Bhutto had, however, said she had named three persons in the letter.

She had indicated that there were also other officials who posed a threat to her life as, she claimed, they were abusing their powers and positions.

Bhutto, who also referred to three persons posing a threat to her life in a complaint she submitted to police in Karachi, has so far not publicly named these persons.  

In her complaint, Bhutto only said that police should take action against "those whose names were given to Musharraf".

The government has so far been silent on her allegations though Musharraf's spokesman defended the IB chief's integrity and reputation and said there was no move to sack Shah.

Some media reports had earlier suggested that Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was also named in Bhutto's letter.

Afzal, who played a key role in probing graft charges against Bhutto and was removed from his post in the NAB due to pressure from her PPP party, is currently serving as Secretary to Punjab Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Maqbool.