Karachi, Oct 22 : Speaking for the first time from Bilwal House in the last eight years, Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said those who tried to attack her under the cover of darkness were cowards.

Benazir, who escaped an assassination bid on Thursday night, said had they (attackers) been brave, they would have come out in broad daylight.
"They don’t want peace, education, employment and progress. They want our people to remain illiterate, backward and unemployed," the Daily Times quoted her, as saying.

Benazir went on to say that her party’s ideology would counter the ideology of terrorism, violence and torture.

"We don’t have weapons in our hands but we are armed with an ideology," said Benazir while addressing women who lost their loved ones after suicide bombers attacked her homecoming rally.

She also gave away compensation of 100, 000 rupees to 15 families that lost their relatives in the blasts.

"We shall live together. We shall die together. And we shall succeed together," she told mourners.

Benazir also visited bomb blast victims who were admitted at Jinnah Hospital. She was flanked by security guards carrying automatic weapons, in her first public outing since Thursday’s blasts, the daily reported.

At the hospital she handed over 5,000 rupees to the injured and expressed her gratitude to staff members who were treating them. (ANI)