'I had to get out before another blast' (From Asian Image)

'I had to get out before another blast'

10:57am Thursday 8th November 2007 in

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BBC Radio Asian Network Reporter RAHILA BANO was only metres away from the bombs that killed over 100 people in Karachi.

Here, she recounts the fear, the panic and horror that spread through the crowds moments after the blasts.

I was in the procession in a PPP Media bus about three buses behind Benazir's bus. It had taken nine hours to travel the 10 miles or so from the airport to Quaid-e-Azam Minar where the rally was due to take place .

We had been stopping and starting all along the route because of the traffic and congestion . There were thousands of people at times walking along side the vehicles and on the pavements.

At about midnight we were almost at our destination although I only discvered this when I returned to the blast site later, when there was a very loud bang . My ears started to hurt.

I asked the men who were in my bus if a bomb had gone off.

They said they didnt think so. I told them if it was then there might be a second explosion.

I'd learnt this from my hostile training. I then called my mother to tell her I was ok as I knew they'd be watching the coverage on the Pakistani satellite TV channels back in Birmingham, I then rang our newsroom .

I then heard another loud bang, when I looked up the bus was empty, the five or six people with me had gone to investigate.

I then gathered my broadcasting equipment and got off the bus.

I saw a car on fire ahead of me. One of the people I was with - a senior Pakistan People's Party member - came up to me and confirmed it as a bomb. People were running everywhere, some leaving their slippers behind in the road .

We got to the pavement on the other side where I saw Benezir's bus.

It had been cleared of people within minutes of the first blast and was parked on the right hand side of the road. The burning vehicle was three cars away.

It was dark so I didn't see the bodies on the floor. I was scared and knew we had to get out of there in case of another blast.

The man with me said we had to get back on the bus and do a u- turn.

We took with us an injured man but he had to sit on the roof of the bus because we didn't know who he was.

He said he'd been shot. At the time I thought he must have got caught by shrapnel. We got away pretty quickly.

We dropped the man off at a taxi. It was about 1am. He went off to the hospital. He was limping.

We found another taxi to take us firstly to the Pearl Continental as my luggage had been taken there and then across the road to Sheraton where I was staying.

I got to my hotel at about 2am and met one of the corros in the lift. They'd heard about the blast and were already filing back to London.

He told me to go to Owen Bennet Jones room when he was doing a live for World Service TV .

He handed the phone to me as the presenter asked me what had happened and what I'd seen. I didn't realise I was live on air !

I was still in shock about what had happened. I then did World Tonight before going to my room, switching on the TV and seeing the full extent of the carnage that had occurred.

My thoughts at the time were that I should have stayed and tried to help the people who'd been injured and that maybe I'd been too selfish in just thinking about myself.

When I was told it was a bomb my first instinct was just to get out of there as soon as I could.

Rahila normally reports on news in the North West of England but because of her expertise in Pakistani politics she has been covering the political developements in Pakistan.

Over the last few months she has covered the return of former PM Nawaz Sharif , Presidential elections, return of Benazir Bhutto and court case facing General Musharaff over his decision to stand in the Presidential elections. This is her 13th foreign assignment in the last 18 months. Other assignments have included covering Misbah Rana Court case, Rape arrests in Spain and Bangladesh floods .