Islamabad: Warning that Pakistan is facing an 'increasing threat of an extremist takeover,' former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto has said the deadly suicide attack on her homecoming procession may have been the handiwork of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's son Hamza.

Bhutto, who survived the terror attack in Karachi on October 18 that killed nearly 140 people and injured hundreds more, said the restoration of democracy is a must to save Pakistan.

The 54-year-old two-time Prime Minister said she believed the attack might have been the handiwork of Hamza Bin Laden, the son of Osama Bin Laden, and repeated her demand that the Pakistan government should seek assistance from foreign countries in probing the incident.

"Elements in the Pakistan administration may have been complicit in the attack and Scotland Yard and FBI specialists should be brought in to help the police investigation," she told a news channel in Dubai, where she is currently visiting her family.

Bhutto, who left Pakistan for Dubai just two weeks after returning from eight years in self-exile, said she did not have any evidence to suggest the involvement of President Pervez Musharraf in the assassination attempt on her.

However, key members of the political apparatus 'loathe' her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for its vision of a federal democratic state, she said.

Source : PTI