Benazir Bhutto said on Sunday that some religious schools were "turning children into killers". Speaking to about 25,000 supporters near her ancestral home here, she also renewed accusations that the government had done nothing to stop militant violence.
"They always try to stop democratic forces but don't make any effort to check extremists, terrorists and fanatics," she told a rally at a cricket stadium. She said that President Pervez Musharraf had spoken of the need to reform religious schools, or madrasahs, but had done nothing. She said she respected genuine religious schools.
"Then there are the political madrasahs, the political madrasahs that teach their pupils how to make bombs, how to use rifles and how to kill women, children and the elderly. "Who they are who tell children to carry out bombing on Eid-ul-Azha?" she said, referring to the attack on Friday in the north-western town of Charsaddah.
At her rally, private security guards used metal detectors to check people entering the stadium. "Extremism is getting strong in our tribal areas, and lawlessness is spreading throughout the country," she said.
Benazir was dogged by accusations of corruption when she served two terms as prime minister in the late 1980s and 1990s but commands a devoted following.
"I was a young student when Bhutto was alive. He was a great leader and I've been a follower since," said a bank worker, Farzand Ali. "Who says there was corruption? Prove it. Whatever you say we're followers."
The vote for provincial parliaments and a national assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn is a three-way race between Benazir, Nawaz, and the party that ruled under Musharraf. Analysts expect a hung parliament, which may mean that two of the three main parties may have to forge an alliance.
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