Pakistan ambassador to US reacting to Karachi blast

Описание: (19 Oct 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Pakistan ambassador to Washington, Mahmud Ali Durrani at interview
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan ambassador to Washington:
"You see, security relates to the situation, now for example, if she had moved from the airport directly to a house like a secure motorcade moves then she would have been in the house a couple of hours earlier, but she's a political leader, she was working the crowds, and her cavalcade was moving almost at less than a snail's pace, so that creates problems, and then she has to work the crowds, so they have to allow people to come close then yet protect her, so it is sometimes impossible to do that, I think a lot of security measures were taken, even for our president we can't take better measures, even he was hit twice with all the security arrangements, so these are hazards of leadership in our area."
3. Wide, Durrani
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan ambassador to Washington:
"Those will be very childish and ridiculous if anybody draws such an assumption that the government is behind it. I think the government was the biggest facilitator, they had provided a phenomenal amount of security, they had eased her coming in, if the government wanted to oppose her we would have stopped her at the airport, no big deal, but the government was facilitating, the government wants democracy to flourish, Musharaff wants democracy to flourish, anybody who would say that I think would be very foolish."
5. Wide, Durrani
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan ambassador to Washington:
"This is not the first time this has happened. As I said, the prime minister has been hit once, the president has been hit twice, and then we've had a series of suicide bombings in Pakistan in the last two three months. So this is one of those events, we have to take it in our stride, we will continue without movement, without political movement, and moving towards democracy, and I don't think this will cause chaos, not so."
7. Wide, Durrani
STORYLINE:
Pakistan's ambassador to Washington defended security arrangements for the return of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto to her homeland which was disrupted by a suspected suicide bombing in Karachi on Thursday.
Mahmud Ali Durrani told AP Television that the security couldn't have been better.
"Even for our president we can't take better measures, even he was hit twice with all the security arrangements," he said.
Two suspected suicide bombs went off in a crowd welcoming Bhutto and killed at least 126 people, shattering her celebratory procession through Pakistan's biggest city after eight years in exile.
"She's a political leader, she was working the crowds, and her cavalcade was moving almost at less than a snail's pace, so that creates problems, and then she has to work the crowds, so they have to allow people to come close then yet protect her, so it is sometimes impossible to do that," he said.
"These are hazards of leadership in our area," he added.
Police and officials of Bhutto's party said she was not injured and was hurried to her Karachi house.
"If she had moved from the airport directly to a house like a secure motorcade moves then she would have been in the house a couple of hours earlier, but she's a political leader, she was working the crowds," said Durrani.
Durrani went on to dismiss conspiracy theories which had suggested that the government might have been behind the bombing as "childish and ridiculous."
The police chief said 150,000 were on the streets, although other observers doubled the figure.

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