Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said today she would carry on her struggle for democracy, despite an attack on her motorcade that killed 133 people as she returned home after eight years of exile.
"We are prepared to risk our lives. We're prepared to risk our liberty. But we're not prepared to surrender this great nation to militants," Bhutto, wearing a black armband, told a news conference at the home of her parents-in-law in Karachi.
"The attack was on what I represent. The attack was on democracy and the very unity and integrity of Pakistan."
The 54-year-old former prime minister returned on Thursday to lead her Pakistan People's Party into national elections due in January that are meant to mark a transition from military to civilian-led democracy.
Bhutto said she had known an attempt on her life was coming and she expected more. She also alluded to enemies in government who were spreading militancy and plotting against her.
"I am not accusing the government. I am accusing people, certain individuals who abuse their positions. Who abuse their powers," she said.
Travelling in a truck reinforced to withstand bomb attacks, Bhutto was unhurt by one of the deadliest bomb attacks in her country's violent history. The Interior Ministry said 133 people had been killed and 290 wounded.
The attack underscored the turbulence which lay in store for Pakistan ahead of the elections but it was unclear how the assassination attempt might affect a possible power-sharing deal between Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf.
As forensic experts studied the severed head of the alleged bomber to try to determine his identity, he suggested Ms Bhutto's camp had got carried away celebrating her return after eight years in exile and had not taken the need for security seriously.
"We were already fearing a strike from Mehsud and his local affiliates and this was conveyed to the (Bhutto's Pakistan's) People's Party but they got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," he said.
Mr Musharraf resolved to "bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice." There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which shed new uncertainty over Mr Bhutto's talks with Mr Musharraf and possible plans for a moderate, pro-US alliance.
Leaders of her Pakistan People's Party were meeting at her Karachi residence today, and Ms Bhutto was expected to hold a news conference afterward.
Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded. A Karachi police chief said that 113 people died, including 20 policemen, and that 300 people were wounded.
It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death tolls. Police collected forensic evidence - picking up pieces of flesh and discarded shoes - from the site of the bombing.
The truck was hoisted away using a crane. One side of the truck, including a big portrait of the former premier was splattered with blood and riddled with shrapnel holes.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said 18 police died in the attack, as two police vehicles on the left side of Bhutto's truck bore the brunt of the blast. He said authorities had done everything possible to protect the huge gathering of Bhutto supporters marking her return, but noted that electronic jammers fitted to the police escort vehicles were ineffective against a manually detonated bomb.
On the eve of Ms Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official had cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Ms Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaeda.
Earlier this month, local media reports quoted Mehsud - probably the most prominent leader of Islamic militants destabilising its north-western border regions near Afghanistan - as vowing to greet Ms Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks.