Update @ 1730: Bomb Blast at Benazir Bhutto’s rally in RawalPindi

BREAKING NEWS At least 20 persons were killed and scores others injured as a powerful blast occurred Thursday at an election campaign rally for Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto here at Rawalpindi, said a foreign news agency. ARY One World is at the moment saying that the bomb blast occurred after Benazir Bhutto left the rally. more updates to follow.

Earlier at around 1600 Dawn News reported of intense security around the area by this news report.

Security tight as Benazir holds rally in Rawalpindi

Hundreds of riot police manned security checkpoints in Rawalpindi Thursday as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto prepared to hold her first campaign rally there. On Thursday, hundreds of people were forced to pass through metal detectors and undergo body searches before entering a sprawling public park decorated with the red, black and green flags of Benazir’s Pakistan Peoples Party and massive portraits of her with local candidates running in January 8 parliamentary elections. Before the rally, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Benazir met with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the end of his two-day visit here and told him that if she is elected prime minister she will work with him to fight terror. ”We, too, believe that it is essential for both of our countries, and indeed the larger Muslim world, to work to protect the interest of Islamic civilization by eliminating extremism and terrorism,” she said after their meeting.