Via reuters.com -
GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father in the family mausoleum on Friday after the opposition leader's assassination plunged Pakistan into crisis and triggered violent protests.
Tens of thousands of mourners wept and beat their heads as Bhutto, killed by a suicide attacker at an election rally on Thursday, was carried from her ancestral home in Sindh province, in the south of the country, to the domed mausoleum.
The 54-year-old's death stoked fears a January 8 election meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule could be put off amid a backlash threatening to engulf embattled President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan said there were signs al Qaeda was responsible.
"We have intelligence intercepts indicating that al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is behind her assassination," an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Mehsud is one of Pakistan's most wanted militant leaders.
...
Many mourners chanted slogans against Musharraf and the United States, which has long backed the former army general in the hope he can maintain stability in the nuclear-armed country racked by Islamist violent.
"Shame on the killer Musharraf, shame on the killer U.S.," mourners cried.
Others wept in despair. "Bhutto was my sister and Bhutto was like my mother," cried farmer Imam Baksh. "With her death, the world has ended for us."
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Meanwhile, violence has erupted in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Protesters have set fire to banks, shops and gas stations, dozens of cars, blocked streets and pelted police with rocks. Most businesses have shut down due to the growing violence. Sindh province's home secretary said 23 people had died in the outpouring of grief and outrage.
This violence has lead to the Pakistan government issuing orders to the paramilitary forces in Sindh to "shoot on site" anyone causing civil disturbances.
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