Pakistan election violence kills 2, U.S. concerned

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A bomb tore through an election campaign convoy in Pakistan on Wednesday killing two people and the United States said it was concerned about intensifying violence in the run-up to the February 18 election.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told lawmakers in Washington she believed Pakistan's leaders understood there needed to be confidence in the election, delayed from January 8 after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb suicide attack on December 27.

"It is not going to be easy. We all are concerned about the potential for violence. We are all concerned, of course, about the potential that at least there will be pockets where there may be problems with the elections," Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The February 18 poll is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule in Pakistan. A low turnout is widely expected because of the violence.

The United States, which Rice said wanted more "moderate voices" in government, and others are increasingly uneasy at the prospect of instability in a nuclear-armed Muslim state, that is fighting militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Washington and others are pressing for Pakistan's new government to be more inclusive of moderate leaders and the United States had been pushing Bhutto to form a partnership with President Pervez Musharraf before her death.

Pakistani police probing the assassination of Bhutto said on Wednesday they had made a "major breakthrough" when two Islamist militants arrested last week confessed to giving her attacker a pistol and suicide vest.

"They have confessed that they gave a suicide jacket and a pistol to the bomber," Deputy Inspector General Chaudhry Abdul Majeed told reporters. "It's a major breakthrough. Their confession is a major piece of evidence in the case," he said.

The government has blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban militant chief with al Qaeda links based on the Afghan border, for the attack on Bhutto and others across the country.

But Mehsud's spokesman, Maulvi Omar, told Reuters on Wednesday the Pakistani Taliban group have decided not to attack next week's general election and that their men would not be involved in any attack before or on election day. He has also denied Mehsud's involvement in Bhutto's assassination.

A recent poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan found almost half of all Pakistanis believe government agencies or politicians allied to Musharraf were involved in the assassination.

Musharraf, who took power in a coup in 1999, imposed emergency rule in November and some limits on civil rights are in effect despite a formal end to the crackdown in December.

The Interior Ministry has asked politicians to avoid unnecessary exposure in the run-up to the vote, keep travel plans unpredictable and avoid big rallies.

MILITARY DEPLOYMENT

An Interior Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that soldiers were being deployed to support police and paramilitary forces where needed. Musharraf has said troops have orders to shoot anyone trying to disrupt polls.