Agency reports
The carnage below the huge mural reading 'Long Live Bhutto'
Karachi, Oct 19: At least 125 people died early Friday morning as bombs targeted Benazir Bhutto on her return.
Two bombs hit crowds greeting the former prime minister as she was being driven in a convoy through crowded streets from Karachi airport to a rally to mark her homecoming after eight years in exile.
More than one million people had turned out to greet the former premier, amid a huge security presence.
Several Islamist groups including pro-Taleban militants have made threats against Bhutto.
Supporters of the former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, dance as they gather outside the Jinnah Airport terminal in Karachi on Thursday to welcome the returning leader
At least 20 of the dead were policemen who were in three vans that were completely destroyed by the attack, police said. Many of the more than 100 injured are still in a critical condition.
The interior ministry earlier said that Bhutto herself was safe, while the minister, Aftab Sherpao, said the two blasts were apparent suicide attacks.
Karachi policeman Falak Ahmad said Bhutto had just descended into the interior of the truck after standing on top for hours to greet the crowds that turned out to welcome her home.
"The blasts were only around five metres from her truck. Minutes before she had gone inside the truck when there was a huge bang.
"They might try to assassinate me," Bhutto told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview before she set out on her second journey home from exile. "I have prepared my family and my loved ones for any possibility," she added.
In 1986, a vast sea of supporters welcomed her as she came back to challenge a military dictator who had executed her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, seven years earlier.
On Thursday, Bhutto, 54, flew back home from Dubai to lead her Pakistan People's Party into national elections. But rather than confronting a military ruler, she is hoping to work with army chief and president Pervez Musharraf for a peaceful transition to civilian rule.
Her stand has raised questions among some who want to force the powerful military out of politics, including some in her party, but she still has more mass appeal than any other leader.
While the crowds out to greet her on Thursday might not be quite as big as they were 21 years ago, Bhutto faces similar perils on a path that has taken her from the country's jails to its corridors of power, and could bring her back to power again.
Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at age 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption and mismanagement.