AL-QAEDA has reportedly claimed responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who was buried yesterday as Pakistan plunged further into violent chaos in which at least 42 people have died, including a candidate for the party that supports the president.
The candidate from the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which supports the President, and five others died in an explosion at an election meeting.
And 16 people, including three police officers, died in Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh, where police were empowered to shoot protesters who would not disperse. Police said they wounded five protesters in Hyderabad.
As Ms Bhutto's funeral began yesterday afternoon, instability threatened to spill beyond Pakistan's borders, with its rival and fellow nuclear power, India, putting its border guards on high alert and suspending train and bus links. Indian police fired tear gas at protesting Kashmiris.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners surrounded the Bhutto family's mausoleum, at Ghari Khuda Baksh in Sindh, where the slain opposition leader was buried with her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the founder of her party who was hanged by a dictator, and her brothers, who also died violently.
Since Ms Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack at a rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday, demonstrators have directed their outrage at the President, Pervez Musharraf, for her murder, blocking streets, burning cars and throwing stones.
At the hospital where she was pronounced dead, supporters smashed down doors at the hospital. They tore down and burnt Mr Musharraf's campaign posters and chanted "Musharraf is a dog" and "Musharraf, go to hell".
At the rally before her death on Thursday Ms Bhutto said of her recent return to Pakistan: "I risked my life and came here because I believe our country is in danger."
And, in a chilling email in October, the 54-year-old opposition leader, who had twice been prime minister, complained to a friend about inadequate security, saying if anything happened to her, he should make sure action "is filed against Musharraf".
Her assassination has heightened fears of instability if Islamist extremists in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan become emboldened and commit more violent acts. That could threaten Pakistan's linchpin role in the US-led war in Afghanistan. That possibility has alarmed world leaders. The US President, George Bush, said: "We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism."
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