TWO suicide bombers struck at the heart of Pakistan’s military establishment yesterday, killing at least 30 officers from the military intelligence service (ISI). Many more were seriously injured.

The attack came as people arrived for work in Rawalpindi, the garrison headquarters of the Pakistan army. One bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a bus carrying up to 90 ISI employees outside a compound. In a second attack nearby a bomber blew himself up after driving his car into a checkpoint outside the army headquarters.

They were the first suicide bombings since General Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule three weeks ago. Opponents said the attacks showed that he was fighting the wrong people, arresting lawyers, human rights activists and moderate politicians instead of jihadi leaders.

“These bombings expose Musharraf’s claim that the emergency will prevent extremism,” said Sherry Rehman, a spokesperson for Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister. “Dictatorship and martial law have emboldened the terrorists and added to terrorism in Pakistan.”

Bhutto was killed by bomb blast

The team from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command have backed the claim that Benazir Bhutto was not shot

BACKGROUND

• Pakistan in turmoil as ‘martial law’ imposed

• Bhutto escapes as bombers kill 126

• Timeline: Pakistan's period of turmoil

• The man out to oust a President

• Internal crisis gives Pakistan reason for hope

Musharraf faces a new threat with the expected arrival in Pakistan today of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif was deposed by Musharraf in a coup in 1999 and the two men remain bitter rivals. After Sharif’s overthrow, his party, the Muslim League, split into two factions. One of them became the main party supporting Musharraf and headed his government. Many of its members are now likely to rejoin Sharif.

Last week Musharraf flew to Saudi Arabia in what diplomats described as a “desperate effort” to persuade King Abdullah to keep Sharif there. But the royal family is close to Sharif and wants to prevent Bhutto coming to power. It does not want to see a woman heading an Islamic state.

Pakistani officials said Gordon Brown, who spoke to Musharraf last Thursday, had also applied pressure for Sharif to be allowed back.

Sharif tried to return from London in September but he was deported within hours on the grounds that he had broken an agreement to stay in exile for 10 years in exchange for his release from jail.

This time Sharif is returning on a special plane provided by the Saudi royal family. A large welcome parade is being prepared in his hometown, Lahore, where he is due to land this evening.

Sharif has not yet said if he will contest the parliamentary elections set for January 8. Most opposition parties say the elections will be illegitimate because emergency rule is in place.

Although Sharif would draw votes away from Musharraf’s party the biggest threat would come if he and Bhutto combined forces to boycott the elections and organised a national campaign for the restoration of full democracy.

The two former prime ministers have had long telephone conversations. Both sides say they have mended fences.

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