By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A bomb tore through an electioncampaign convoy in Pakistan on Wednesday killing two people andthe United States said it was concerned about intensifyingviolence in the run-up to the February 18 election.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told lawmakers inWashington she believed Pakistan's leaders understood thereneeded to be confidence in the election, delayed from January 8after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto ina gun and bomb suicide attack on December 27.
"It is not going to be easy. We all are concerned about thepotential for violence. We are all concerned, of course, aboutthe potential that at least there will be pockets where theremay be problems with the elections," Rice told the SenateForeign Relations Committee.
The February 18 poll is meant to complete a transition tocivilian rule in Pakistan. A low turnout is widely expectedbecause of the violence.
The United States, which Rice said wanted more "moderatevoices" in government, and others are increasingly uneasy atthe 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 newgovernment to be more inclusive of moderate leaders and theUnited States had been pushing Bhutto to form a partnershipwith President Pervez Musharraf before her death.
Pakistani police probing the assassination of Bhutto saidon Wednesday they had made a "major breakthrough" when twoIslamist militants arrested last week confessed to giving herattacker a pistol and suicide vest.
"They have confessed that they gave a suicide jacket and apistol to the bomber," Deputy Inspector General Chaudhry AbdulMajeed told reporters. "It's a major breakthrough. Theirconfession is a major piece of evidence in the case," he said.
The government has blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a PakistaniTaliban militant chief with al Qaeda links based on the Afghanborder, for the attack on Bhutto and others across the country.
But Mehsud's spokesman, Maulvi Omar, told Reuters onWednesday the Pakistani Taliban group have decided not toattack next week's general election and that their men wouldnot be involved in any attack before or on election day. He hasalso denied Mehsud's involvement in Bhutto's assassination.
A recent poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan found almosthalf of all Pakistanis believe government agencies orpoliticians allied to Musharraf were involved in theassassination.
Musharraf, who took power in a coup in 1999, imposedemergency rule in November and some limits on civil rights arein effect despite a formal end to the crackdown in December.
The Interior Ministry has asked politicians to avoidunnecessary exposure in the run-up to the vote, keep travelplans unpredictable and avoid big rallies.
MILITARY DEPLOYMENT
An Interior Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday thatsoldiers were being deployed to support police and paramilitaryforces where needed. Musharraf has said troops have orders toshoot anyone trying to disrupt polls.
In the latest violence that killed two, police said MuftiHussain Ahmed, an independent candidate contesting a provincialassembly seat, was among three wounded in the blast in thenorthwestern Swat valley where hundreds of pro-Talibanmilitants have been killed in clashes with troops in recentmonths.
Nine people, including four journalists, were wounded onTuesday in southwestern Baluchistan in an explosion outside anelection office of another independent candidate.
Two suicide bomb attacks on election rallies in differentparts of northwest Pakistan have killed at least 22 people andwounded more than 30 in the last week alone.
Electioneering in his home province of Punjab on Wednesday,former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif derided his oldfoe Musharraf as a lackey of the United States.
Sharif was allowed to return from exile in November thanksto pressure on Musharraf from Saudi King Abdullah.
"He does not care about Pakistan, he cares about America,"Sharif told a rally of about 5,000 people in Chakwal district,around 65 km (40 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad.
Sharif is barred from running in next Monday's election dueto criminal convictions handed down after he was ousted by thetakeover that brought Musharraf to power.
In the past, Sharif used his position in the middle groundto cultivate appeal among religious conservatives and has notspoken out as strongly as Bhutto against Islamist militants.
Bhutto's assassination created a wave of sympathy that isexpected to help her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) emerge asthe largest party in the National Assembly after the vote.
It is not a presidential election, but the outcome could bevital to Musharraf's future.
"Once the elections are over, the key is going to be tobring about a government that can again inspire, that there area wide range of moderate voices that have been integrated intoit," said Rice, without expanding further.
Sharif's party is campaigning to restore judges removed byMusharraf in November, when he imposed emergency rule for sixweeks to secure his own re-election.
It is expected to make gains at the expense of apro-Musharraf party, but it cannot win.
(Writing by Augustine Anthony, Simon Cameron-Moore, SuePleming, Simon Gardner and Peter Millership)
(for a Reuters blog about Pakistan please see:http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/)
