Bhutto's body flown home as Pakistan on edge

28 December 2007
Report: Nadheem Soomro

NAUDERO, Pakistan (Reuters) - The body of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto arrived in her family village for burial on Friday, hours after her assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history.

Her killing on Thursday after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence, especially in her native Sindh province, and stoked fears that a January 8 election meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule could be put off.

World leaders urged Pakistan not to be deflected from a course toward democracy, as fears of further instability in a region racked by Islamist militancy roiled markets on Friday and triggered a flight to less risky assets such as bonds and gold.

"Unrest in Pakistan is eroding the market sentiment dramatically as Pakistan, unlike North Korea or Iran, is known to really have nuclear weapons," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

Thousands of mourners thronged Bhutto's ancestral home as the former prime minister's body arrived aboard a military aircraft, accompanied by husband Asif Ali Zardari and their three children.

People cried and wailed as Bhutto's coffin was taken to her family home by ambulance.

"Show patience. Give us courage to bear this loss," Zardari urged mourners as the coffin was borne into the house.

Bhutto, 54, had hoped the huge popular following she enjoyed among the Pakistani poor would propel her to power for the third time in an election meant to stabilize a country struggling to contain Islamist violence.

But as she left the campaign rally, where she had spoken of threats to her life, she stood to wave to supporters from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle. An attacker fired shots at her before blowing himself up, police and witnesses said.

FATHER HANGED

She was pronounced dead in hospital in Rawalpindi, home of the Pakistan army and the city where her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.

"It is the act of those who want Pakistan to disintegrate," said Farzana Raja, a senior official from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. "They have finished the Bhutto family."

Across Pakistan, a country used to political violence and ruled by the military for more than half of its life, friends and foes alike were stunned by the death of a woman many had once criticized as a feudal leader buoyed by popular support while enjoying the riches of the family dynasty.

"People are very angry. They attacked banks and government offices. There were no police anywhere. Two shops selling weapons were also looted," said Larkana-based journalist Maula Baksh.

At least four people were killed in Karachi, capital of Sindh, in violence that erupted following her slaying. On Friday unidentified gunmen shot dead a police constable in the city.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto's old political rival, said his party would boycott the January election.

He blamed President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but recently retired from the army, for creating instability. "Free elections are not possible ... Musharraf is the root cause of all problems," he said.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November in what was seen as an attempt to stop the judiciary from vetoing his re-election as president. He lifted emergency rule this month.

VIOLENT PROTESTS

In Karachi, thousands poured on to the streets on Thursday night to protest. Violence eased towards midnight after dozens of vehicles and several buildings were torched.

A Reuters reporter traveling through Sindh said on Friday he had seen hundreds of burnt-out vehicles, and people were coming out and setting fire to more and trying to block roads.

Authorities ordered the central bank and all schools to close for three days of mourning.

The United States, which relies on Pakistan as an ally against al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, had championed the Harvard- and Oxford-educated Bhutto, seeing in her the best hope of a return to democracy.

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President George W. Bush said.

Bush telephoned Musharraf and urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process.

Analysts said Bhutto's death, which followed a wave of suicide attacks and the worsening of an Islamist insurgency, could make it impossible to go ahead with the election.

"I think there is a very real possibility that Musharraf will decide that the situation has got out of control and that he needs to impose emergency rule again," said Farzana Shaikh from the Chatham House analysis group in London.

APPEAL FOR CALM

Musharraf condemned the Rawalpindi attack, in which a total of 16 people were killed, and called for calm.

"We will not sit and rest until we get rid of these terrorists, root them out," he said. He did not mention the poll.

In 1988, aged just 35, Bhutto became the Muslim world's first democratically elected woman prime minister. Deposed in 1990, she was re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption she said were politically motivated.

Along with her husband, she is survived by a son Bilawal, 19, and two daughters, Bakhtawar, 17 and Aseefa, 14.

Bhutto's husband said the government should step down.

"We demand the immediate resignation of the government. Those who were responsible for the attack on October 18 are also responsible for this attack," he told Reuters by telephone.

He did not elaborate but referred to a letter Bhutto wrote to Musharraf before she returned to Pakistan in which she said if she were attacked, some of Musharraf's allies and a security agency would be responsible.

Courtesy: Reuters