Taliban militants in Pakistan have vowed to launch suicide attacks against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when she returns to the country after eight years of self-imposed exile.

Bhutto was allowed to return to Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf last week signed an amnesty deal with the PPP chief, quashing corruption charges against her.

Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader linked to al-Qaeda, declared that suicide bombers would launch attacks on the former premier as soon as she returned, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Mehsud is holding more than 250 Pakistani soldiers as hostages and has also been blamed for organising suicide bombings.

The report also quoted Farahatullah Babar, a spokesman of Bhutto’s Pakistan People's Party as saying “the danger to her life is always there if she returns but we have decided that she will return at any cost”. Though the presidential elections held on Saturday are yet to be pronounced valid by the Supreme Court, the President is likely to form an alliance with Bhutto after parliamentary polls in January next year, the report said.

Bhutto, who is currently in Dubai, is scheduled to leave for Pakistan on October 17 and reach Karachi the next day.