Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto blamed President Pervez Musharraf for failing to protect her in the volatile months preceding her assassination, an email released by US media has showed.

If harmed in Pakistan, “I wld (would) hold Musharraf responsible,” Bhutto wrote in the October email, revealed on air by CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer, who received it from Bhutto’s friend and US spokesman Mark Siegel.

“I have been made to feel insecure by his minions,” Bhutto wrote of Musharraf, detailing security measures which she said were not granted her after her return to the volatile country.

“There is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides cld (could) happen without him.”

Siegel told the channel that Bhutto had asked authorities to provide protection including a four-car police escort and jamming devices against bombs, but had not received them.

The news channel revealed the email hours after Bhutto, 54, was killed in a suicide attack on Thursday that sparked worldwide condemnation.

Bhutto sent the email to Siegel on October 26, a week after a suicide bombing targeted her shortly after her return to Pakistan from exile. Siegel said Pakistan failed to investigate that attack.

Bhutto asked for the email to be forwarded to the media if she was killed.

Musharraf placed Pakistan under emergency rule from November 3 to December 15, citing security fears, cracking down on opponents ahead of elections scheduled for January 8. Bhutto had returned amid negotiations with Musharraf on a power-sharing deal.

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