(AHN) -Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will visit her constituency of Larkana on Saturday amid security fears after 24 people, most of them police, were killed in a suicide bomb attack. Authorities suspect the bombing was carried out by Taliban-backed militants who control much of the province.
The attack, which targeted a police truck filled with 43 troops, occurred in Mangora, where Pakistan has deployed 2,500 troops to combat a militant cleric who calls for Taliban-style rule and holy war against authorities. The attack also occurred just one week after twin blasts claimed 136 lives and injured hundreds of people during Bhutto's homecoming.
The decision to return to Larkana, her ancestral village, was "a very big dilemma," Bhutto told CNN. "I do not want to risk the life of another single person, but my colleagues and I have thought long and hard and we feel that if we will not take the risks of traveling then in fact the militants and their sponsors, organizers and financiers will succeed in stopping the democratic process."
Authorities suspect al-Qaida may be behind the October 18 suicide attack but Bhutto has also accused Pakistani security services and elements within the government.
A new chief investigator was appointed to probe last week's suicide attack, after Bhutto claimed the previous officer took part in the torture of her husband in 1999.