Musharraf's rule under threat amid internal strife

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded hotel restaurant in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on May 15, killing 25 people and leaving a posthumous warning of more attacks to come attached to his leg. The attack came in the course of the bloodiest period of internal strife Pakistan has endured since President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999 and represents the latest sign that the military leader's hold on the country is shakier than ever. The authorities said about 50 people were injured. Amid the carnage, according to Peshawar police, the bomber's legs were recovered. Scrawled on brown packaging tape wrapped around one was a note in Pashtu proclaiming: "Those who spy for America will face this same fate." Sources in Peshawar said the hotel owners had come from Afghanistan and were seen as outsiders. One theory is that the attack was intended as revenge for the death of Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban leader killed over the weekend by Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The bombing follows the worst political violence in Pakistan for two decades over the weekend, when 45 people were killed and more than 150 others injured in street gun battles in Karachi between pro-government and opposition parties. The government then banned political meetings and gave elite troops "shoot to kill" orders for anyone involved in politically motivated violence or property destruction. The next day, Karachi and other major cities were brought to a near halt by a protest strike over the role of the pro-government MQM party in the killings. The opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) also protested the killing on May 14 of a Supreme Court official, Syed Hamad Raza, who was to have been a key witness in a legal dispute between the government and Pakistan's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, whom Musharraf is trying to remove from office. Raza was shot dead by three gunmen in Islamabad. His widow Shadana said she believed the killing was targeted. "They just came and shot him," she said. "He opened the door and they shot him and ran away." "Raza's murder is a strong message to the judiciary," Sherry Rehman, a PPP spokeswoman, said. "Pakistan is being ruled by a bunch of butchers." The fight over Chaudhry's future has crystallized opposition to the Musharraf government. Opposition groups accused the government of deliberately fomenting the violence in Karachi and of targeting those known to support Chaudhry, who has become a major opposition figure since his suspension by Musharraf two months ago. Chaudhry was suspended over unspecified accusations of misconduct. "The violence was preconceived by the government and deliberately exploited racial tensions within Karachi," said a senior PPP official, Wajid Shamsul Hasan. "People in civilian clothes were running around targeting anyone. They were firing from the tops of buildings and were even using tear gas canisters as the police stood idly by. The government is colluding 100 percent…. This has now become an ethnic fight." Karachi has a history of bloody ethnic-based feuding. The ethnic tinderbox that is Karachi went up in flames as Chaudhry arrived in the city to address a lawyer's convention at the Sindh High Court. The gun battles broke out as Chaudhry arrived at Karachi airport, for what organizers hoped would be the largest in two months of rallies by lawyers and opposition parties protesting his suspension, after ignoring requests from provincial officials to postpone his visit because of fears of bloodshed. Observers sensed trouble when the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, an ally of Musharraf since 2002, decided to hold a rally in the city on the same day. Neither side would back down and bloodshed followed. Chaudhry's supporters claim Musharraf is trying to oust him because he was a potential obstacle if the president's reelection bid this year hits constitutional challenges. The government has placed the blame squarely on Chaudhry, arguing his refusal to defer his visit to Karachi at a time of heightened political tension meant violence was inevitable. Private Aaj television, which has come under pressure from the government for its alleged support for Chaudhry, showed footage of gunmen firing at its office in Karachi and of its correspondents diving for cover. "The callous inaction of law enforcement authorities in the face of extensive violence can either be explained as government incompetence or complicity," said Ali Dayan Hasan, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch. "In either case, this is a dark day for civil and political liberties in Pakistan."