Campaign at your own peril

Pakistan | She survived one assassination attempt, but threats against Benazir Bhutto aren’t over | Priya Abraham

After tallying the deaths, visiting the wounded, and mourning the sons lost, Pakistani political hopeful Benazir Bhutto faced yet more threats. Days after two suicide bombers ripped through her homecoming procession in Karachi, killing about 140, her lawyer received a letter. The writer, the self-proclaimed "head of the suicide bombers and a friend of al-Qaida," threatened to kill Bhutto "like a goat."

Authentic or not, the letter underscored the tough battle ahead for Bhutto, who hopes to become a third-time prime minister in Pakistan after years in political exile. Her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) enjoys heavy support in the country's four provinces and among the poor. Hundreds of unpaid bodyguards volunteered to protect Bhutto as her bulletproof bus inched through Karachi's streets Oct. 18. Fifty of them died, and 40 of the young men hailed from Karachi's Lyari slum, loyal to Bhutto in the midst of joblessness, crime, and dirt.