ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
NPR's Philip Reeves reports from Islamabad.
PHILIP REEVES: It's a week since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
REEVES: In the streets of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, the supporters gather to remember her. At the same time, not far away, President Pervez Musharraf is tackling hostile questions from the foreign media.
SIEGEL: I wonder whether you could explain how Pakistan can make the peaceful transition to democracy when many people in the country believe you have blood on your hands over Benazir Bhutto's death?
REEVES: Musharraf said it was beneath his dignity to answer that question. But he did.
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: I'm not fugitive(ph). And I'm not a tribal. I've been brought up in a very educated and civilized family, with beliefs and values, with beliefs and principles, with beliefs and character. My family is not a family which believes in killing people, assassinating, intriguing. And that is all that I want to say.
REEVES: Musharraf had plenty to say, though, about allegations that Bhutto's death was because of lax security. Bhutto died as she left a political rally in the city of Rawalpindi. Musharraf said she had proposed going to the same spot a few weeks earlier.
MUSHARRAF: We knew, the intelligence agency knew there's a threat. And we told her not to go. And we stopped her from going. This time, she again decided to go and she went. So therefore she went on her own volition, ignoring the threat.
REEVES: People who had stayed inside that car had been unharmed, he said. But Bhutto decided to poke her head out at the sunroof.
MUSHARRAF: Who is to blame for her coming out of the vehicle and standing outside? Who is to blame? The law enforcement agency?
REEVES: He said the Islamist extremists are the only people who use suicide bombers.
MUSHARRAF: No intelligence organization of Pakistan, I think, is capable of indoctrinating a man to blow himself up.
REEVES: Musharraf particularly blames the tribal militant called Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan, who he alleges is linked to al-Qaida. Musharraf was asked why Pakistani forces don't simply go into Waziristan and get him.
MUSHARRAF: And let me tell you that getting him in that place means battling against thousands of people, hundreds of people who are his followers. If you try to attack, it means maybe the original effort going in to attack will all deaths on our head.
REEVES: This was a robust performance by Musharraf, considering the turmoil his country's in. However, every now and then, he showed signs of bitterness, especially towards the Western press.
MUSHARRAF: I know what you people are writing, what is being written everywhere. And I don't believe whatever you write.
REEVES: He had some questions of his own.
MUSHARRAF: Philip Reeves, NPR News, Islamabad.