The Hindu : Front Page : Benazir Bhutto laid to rest

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Saturday, Dec 29, 2007
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Benazir Bhutto laid to rest

Nirupama Subramanian

Violence spreads in Pakistan; polls as scheduled: PM

— Photo: AFP

End of en era: Asif Ali Zardari, husband of Benazir Bhutto, and his son, Bilawal, shower rose petals on the grave of Benazir at Ghari Khuda Baksh on Friday.

ISLAMABAD: Amid a sea of mourning supporters and her close family, Benazir Bhutto, the slain leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, was laid to rest on Friday next to her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the family tomb in Garhi Khuda Baksh in Naudero, her ancestral home in Larkana district of Sindh.

As thousands of supporters wept her passing, others expressed their grief and anger through violence. Gangs of men took to the streets in Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana and other cities of Sindh, torching vehicles and government buildings, looting banks and uprooting train tracks.

Eyewitnesses from the Larkana area said the mobs were even setting fire to ambulances. In some places the rioting also took on an ethnic colour, as shops and establishments belonging to Punjabis and Urdu-speakers were attacked.

The violence left at least 25 people dead in different parts of the country. Thousands of people making their way to the funeral were stranded as roads were blocked by tyre-burning mobs.

Rawalpindi also witnessed looting and burning of banks and business establishments.

Islamabad shut down completely in response to a strike call by Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N).

Late in the afternoon, the Sindh government called out the Army, and soldiers were deployed in several parts of Karachi and in the interior areas of Sindh.

The simple wooden coffin in which Ms. Bhutto left the Rawalpindi General Hopsital on Thursday night was buried after afternoon prayers, just before the sun went down. Her husband Asif Zardari had flown in from Dubai late on Thursday with their three children to organise the funeral.

There was much media comment at the quick burial. There was an expectation that her body would lie at her home so that her supporters from all parts of the country could arrive in remote Naudero to pay their final respects to their leader. The diplomatic community too expected that there would be enough time for world leaders to arrive for the funeral. Even leaders of other political parties could not make it to the funeral.

But PPP leaders said the family was following the Islamic custom of burying the dead as early as possible.

The grand marble mausoleum which houses her grave and her father’s is also where her two brothers, Shahnawaz and Murtaza, are buried. Like them, Ms. Bhutto too died violently — in a shooting-cum-suicide attack on Thursday as she left Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi after addressing an election rally.The entire top leadership of the PPP was present, as were her estranged sister-in-law Ghinwa, the wife of Murtaza Bhutto, and their daughter Fatima, who in recent weeks launched sharp attacks against her aunt in the media.

“We’ll consult parties”

Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said that for the time being there was no plan to postpone the January 8 elections. If any change was made, it would be done in consultation with all political parties.

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