Musharraf on his way to Pakistan despite 'peril'

DUBAI, March 23 (AFP) - Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said he will definitely return home Sunday to contest historic elections in May and that he was prepared to risk any danger to his life.

He gave an interview with AFP in Dubai just hours after a Pakistani court granted him protective bail in a string of legal cases, paving the way for his return from nearly five years in exile without the risk of immediate arrest.

But commentators say most of his powerbase has evaporated and that he will only secure at the most a couple of seats for his All Pakistan Muslim League (APLM) party in the next national assembly at the May 11 election.

“Two hundred percent! I am travelling back on Sunday to Pakistan,” he told AFP in Dubai, where he has divided his time with London.

TALIBAN THREATEN TO SEND HIM TO ‘HELL’

ISLAMABAD, March 23 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Taliban have threatened, in a video released today, to use suicide bombers and snipers to kill former President Pervez Musharraf when he returns home from exile.

In a Taliban video obtained by Reuters, Adnan Rasheed, who took part in a previous at-

“I will go by land, air or sea... even to the peril of my life this is the oath I took for the country.”

Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup when he was army chief of staff in 1999 and left the country after stepping down in August 2008, when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president.He is wanted over the assassination of Zardari's wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack on December 27, 2007, just two months after her own return from years in tempt to assassinate Musharraf, said: “The mujahideen of Islam have prepared a special squad to send Musharraf to hell. There are suicide bombers, snipers, a special assault unit and a close combat team.” Musharraf angered the Taliban and other groups by launching a major crackdown on militancy. self-imposed exile.

Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto, who is co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has accused Musharraf of murdering his mother, and the outgoing government always insisted that Musharraf would be arrested should be return.

Last year, he delayed a planned homecoming after being threatened with detention. But an interim government is expected to be in place by Sunday even if Zardari will remain president until after the elections.