"We have prepared a special squad of suicide bombers for Musharraf," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. "They will attack Musharraf after he arrives (in) Pakistan." Musharraf is due to fly into Karachi on Sunday. He told a news conference in Dubai that he was not perturbed by the threat, but admitted there was a security risk to his return. "I don't get scared... by such kind of threat," he said. "I cannot say that my security is guaranteed 100 percent," he added, expressing concern for the security of his supporters.
When former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Karachi from eight years in exile on October 18, 2007, bomb attacks killed at least 139 people in what remains the deadliest single terror attack on Pakistani soil She was later assassinated in a gun and suicide attack at the end of an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. Her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, has accused Musharraf of her murder.
He went to the top of the Taliban hit list after ordering the army to storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad. The operation left more than 100 people dead and opened the floodgates to attacks in Pakistan. Taliban and al Qaeda-linked groups went on the rampage, carrying out hundreds of attacks that have killed more than 5,700 people according to an AFP tally.
In an interview with AFP in Dubai on Friday, Musharraf said he was prepared to risk any danger to his life in order to stand for election on May 11, polls which should mark the first democratic transition of power in Pakistani history. "Two hundred percent! I am travelling back on Sunday to Pakistan," he said.
On Friday a court in Karachi granted him protective bail for at least 10 days on charges of conspiracy to murder and illegally arresting judges, but analysts say the risk of arrest is less than the danger to his life. "Security will be a huge challenge for him," retired lieutenant general Talat Masood told AFP. It is not only the Pakistani Taliban, but Baluch groups, who hold him responsible for Bugti's death, and hard-line sectarian groups who want to kill him, said Masood. "Moreover he is arriving in Karachi where the security situation is very difficult... I don't know why he is taking the risk when he has not a bright future in Pakistan," he added.