Pakistan gripped by violence as Bhutto to be buried

Benazir Bhutto
©AFP - Aamir Qureshi

ISLAMABAD - The body of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was Friday flown to her home in southern Pakistan for burial as anger over her assassination exploded into deadly rioting.

Bhutto's husband and her three children accompanied the coffin as it arrived by helicopter in Naudero town in southern Sindh province where she will be buried later in the day next to her father in the family graveyard.

As Pakistan began three days of mourning, anger over her death triggered violence across the country. Grief-stricken supporters burned vehicles and buildings, blocked roads and screamed abuse at President Pervez Musharraf.

Bhutto, 54, was leaving a rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi where she had been campaigning for January 8 elections when a suicide bomber shot her in the neck on Thursday. He then blew himself up, killing around 20 people.

Bhutto's death stunned world leaders who appealed for calm and warned that extremists must not be allowed to destabilise the nuclear-armed nation before the polls.

US President George W. Bush described the killing as a "cowardly act" and telephoned Musharraf -- a crucial ally in the US-led "war on terror" against Islamic extremism -- and urged Pakistan to stay on the path of democracy.

"We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with a democratic process," Bush said.

Supporters of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto carry her coffin
©AFP - Farooq Naeem

However the vote now appears increasingly in doubt, with Pakistan's other leading opposition figure, Nawaz Sharif, announcing his party was pulling out.

"I demand that Musharraf quit power, without delay of a single day, to save Pakistan," the former premier told reporters, calling for a nationwide strike.

Noone has claimed responsibility for the killing but Bhutto was an outspoken opponent of Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists blamed for scores of bombings in Pakistan, and she had received death threats from militant groups.

Bhutto had also accused elements of the intelligence services of involvement in a suicide attack on her convoy in Karachi on October 18 as she returned from exile. She narrowly escaped death, but the attack left 139 people dead.

This CNN video grab shows an interview with Mark Siegel
©AFP/CNN

After her death on Thursday, close aides released an email in which she accused President Musharraf of deliberately failing to provide adequate security.

Bhutto's US spokesman Mark Siegel told CNN she had asked authorities to provide protection including a four-car police escort and jamming devices against bombs, but that she had not received them.

If harmed in Pakistan, "I wld (would) hold Musharaf (sic) responsible," Bhutto wrote in an October email made public by Siegel.

Musharraf urged people to remain peaceful "so that the evil designs of terrorists can be defeated." All schools, businesses and banks were ordered to close down.

Former premier Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan. Duration: 01:06
©AFPTV/Geo TV

But mobs of protesters took to the streets, torching buildings, trucks and shops, blocking roads and uprooting rail tracks as anger over the slaying mounted. Shots rang out in a number of cities.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said 10 people died in the unrest after her death -- four in Karachi, four in rural Sindh province in the south and two in Lahore.

Some protesters fired shots into the air, while others shouted slogans including "Musharraf is a dog." In Jacobabad in the south, protesters set fire to shops belonging to relatives of interim premier Mohammedmian Soomro.

Pervez Musharraf
©AFP/PID

Bhutto became the first elected female leader of a Muslim nation when she took the helm in 1988. She was deposed in 1990 amid corruption allegations, but was premier again between 1993 and 1996.

Her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was also prime minister and founded the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which she led, was hanged by the military in 1979 after being ousted from power.

Bhutto was expected to be buried next to her father at around noon (0830 GMT) in the ancestral graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village, near Naudero, her spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

Security was tight as thousands of her party members and supporters were expected to attend the burial ceremony.

A Pakistani cameraman take images of burning vehicles on a street in Karachi
©AFP - Asif Hassan

Educated at Oxford and Harvard, Bhutto's return here in October after eight years of self-exile brought hopes of power-sharing with Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999. However they were quickly shattered.

Her homecoming rally was hit in the deadliest suicide attack in Pakistani history while her talks with Musharraf ended in acrimony after he imposed emergency rule on November 3, lifting it six weeks later.

There were frenzied scenes as hundreds of people mobbed her simple wooden coffin as it was borne out of the Rawalpindi hospital for the journey to the airport at Islamabad.

Her husband Asif Zardari, who had just flown in from Dubai, and their three children had a brief chance to see the body before an air force jet took off for Sindh. The body was transferred to a helicopter for the final journey.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Bhutto's party successor and Zardari by telephone to press US support for the elections to go ahead, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

World leaders roundly condemned what neighbour India called an "abominable act." United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon described it as a "heinous crime," and the UN Security Council condemned the "terrorist suicide attack" after meeting in emergency session.