Pakistan probed Saturday a list of possible suspects given by former premier Benazir Bhutto after a suicide assassination bid that killed 139 people and bloodied her return from exile. Benazir said she had sent President Pervez Musharraf the names of three people she accused of involvement in Thursday's blast.
Which ripped through a crowd of hundreds of thousands who welcomed her back to Karachi. "I have shared the names with General Musharraf and one of the people is someone that they are (already) watching," Benazir told the BBC in an interview, but refused to give their names.
The 54-year-old has blamed militants for the attack and said she did not believe that the "state or government" were involved, but sources in her party said the list included senior army officials, without elaborating.
Benazir has said that she received a warning prior to her return from Dubai about members of al Qaeda, Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and a Karachi-based militant group who may plan to attack her. She has also accused Islamist supporters of late military ruler Zia-ul-Haq of being behind the blasts.
Several hundred protesters burned tyres in the streets on Saturday and pelted passing vehicles with stones for a second day in pro-Benazir neighbourhoods, AFP photographers said. Police released a photograph of the bomber's head and said they were pushing forward with the probe but had made no arrests. Musharraf pledged to bring the culprits to justice in a phone call to Benazir on Friday.
"Investigations are progressing in the right direction but once again we will avoid pinpointing anyone or blaming it on a certain set of militants," Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi told AFP.
Benazir has pledged to stay in Pakistan to combat militancy and fight general elections in January, seen as a key step to returning the Islamic republic of some 160 million people to civilian rule. But the attack on her motorcade has cast doubt over her previous plans to tour the country to whip up support ahead of the polls.
Her party said she would soon visit the tomb of her father in her family's ancestral village of Larkana, deep in southern Sindh province. "Her next stop will be Larkana to pay homage to her shaheed (martyr) father. That will come in a day or so," senior party leader Taj Haider told AFP.
"She is meeting party officials and consulting them. The programmes are being re-adjusted because of the security threat but she has said the attack will not deter her and the party from going ahead with plans."