Dismembered bodies, pools of blood and charred vehicles were what was left on the road as the jubilant homecoming of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto turned into a tragedy following the twin bomblasts on her convoy.

As the first blast ripped through the procession, sending pieces of flesh in the air, stunned Pakistan People’s Party workers, who had thronged the streets in thousands to greet their leader on her return from an eight-year self imposed exile, ducked for cover, their clothes torn and bloodied. “Suddenly there was a huge blast and we fell on each other,” said Sherry Rehman, PPP’s information secretary.

The people ran helter-skelter amid large pools of blood as the second blast, apparently by a suicide bomber, ripped through a police van just 10 to 15 ft ahead of Bhutto’s armoured truck, throwing up a huge cloud of fire and debris while raining splinters in all directions.

Bhutto was immediately rescued and whisked away to her residence, Bilawal House. The powerful blasts blew apart scores of PPP workers who were dancing around Bhutto’s truck along with policemen who were a part of the security ring around her.  An injured man hopped around on one foot in daze before he was led away by other people, as dozens of severed body parts and dismembered bodies lay near the armoured truck.

The explosions torched several motorcycles and vehicles, including Bhutto’s armoured truck. “This was a terrible act of terrorism perpetrated by Muslims on Muslims. We are all Muslims and we should learn to live together,” said a bystander.

Some bystanders even cradled the wounded in their arms and rushed them to nearby hospitals while anxious crowds made a beeline for the hospitals to find out about their friends and kin who were part of Bhutto’s triumphant motorcade.

The toll mounted rapidly in the hours after the blasts.  Heaps of footwear and charred vehicles littered the street.