Cleric says Bilawal 'is a target now'

TURBULENT NEIGHBOURHOOD

Barely a week after former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a radical Pakistani cleric has issued a "chilling" warning to her son and political heir Bilawal, saying that he "is a target now".

"Bilawal has become the target for those who killed Benazir Bhutto. His party (PPP) has to take extra care of him and look after his security," Maulana Mohavya Irshad, who admits he is happy to become a suicide bomber, was quoted as saying by a media report here.

The 24-year-old bearded cleric, who issued the warning last night at Islamabad's Lal Masjid where an Army operation in July last year had left over 100 people, mostly militants, dead, insisted: "I don't know which group killed Bhutto" on December 27 after she addressed a poll rally in Rawalpindi.

"At this time, I don't know much about Bilawal. I only know he is a liberal person and that is deviation from Islam. True Muslims will not allow him to go against Islam," the 'Taliban fanatic' was quoted as saying by 'The Sun' website.

These "true" Muslims will be horrified to see this image of Bilawal dressed as the devil with a pretty girl on his arm at a decadent party at Oxford University, the cleric said.