Benazir Bhutto's long-awaited return to Pakistan last Thursday would, her supporters hoped, herald a new dawn in the nation's chequered political history. Instead, it will always be associated with the terrorist atrocities that greeted it. Her return was designed to apply huge pressure on beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf, but now both politicians' efforts and attention will be dominated by those events.
Despite warnings of possible attacks and offers of helicopter transport, Ms Bhutto chose to leave the airport in an open-top truck in a motorcade deliberately crawling at a snail's pace. That was designed to make a very specific point, as she noted to international journalists travelling with her. Namely, that the 'politically motivated' corruption charges that kept her out of the country had failed in their key purpose of destroying her public standing.
That choice backfired with horrible consequences. Ms Bhutto is alive to fight another day, but the newspaper headlines were not dominated by news of her return, but by the carnage that accompanied it.
Ms Bhutto's husband immediately accused rogue intelligence forces of involvement. And while Ms Bhutto declared that 'I don't believe the state or the government was involved', she also believed that 'the sympa- thisers of the militants had managed to infiltrate some of our agencies and some of our administrative apparatus ... and that they abused their positions to give covert support to the militants'.
Several Islamist groups, including Taleban and al-Qaeda affiliates, had vowed to attack Ms Bhutto on her return, as she had promised to confront those forces operating in the northern tribal regions. The militants and her other detractors would have been further angered by the deal she seemed to have made with General Musharraf to enable her return - corruption charges being dropped in exchange for temporary political co-operation and power sharing. American and British pressure to make that deal, widely reported in the Pakistani press, was another irritation.
These same militants had in previous weeks been increasing their military pressure: clashes in the North Waziristan tribal region resulted in the death of at least 50 Pakistani soldiers and 150 militants.