Attempt on life: Bhutto gives details

LARKARNA (Pakistan),

Feb. 16. Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Z.A. Bhutto will make a major policy statement in Karachi.

Mr. Bhutto, who starts for Karachi tomorrow, gave details of alleged assassination attempt on his life by a young man. “I saw this young man about five yards from me. I saw he had a pistol. Just as I saw him, the crowd also noticed the gun and pounced on him tearing the gun from his hand.”

Mr. Bhutto, who was released from three months’ detention, said he pushed his 10-year-old son Shahnawaz to the floor of the jeep in which they were riding. “Then we managed to get him away and he was handed over to the police,” Mr Bhutto said.

Asked about a police quoting the youth, cigarette vendor Liaquat Punjabi Shaikh, as saying he found an empty pistol on the ground and just picked it up,” Mr. Bhutto said “I am convinced it was a serious attempt on my life.”

His spokesman Mustafa Shar, described the police statement as “fabrication.”