Click to play videoNew Delhi: Pakistan prepared to bury its beloved leader Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on Thursday evening by two unidentified assassins, plunging the country into one of its worst crises.
The Opposition leader and former prime minister will be buried alongside her father in her hometown Larkana at about 3 00 PM (PST) on Friday.
Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari and her three children arrived in Pakistan from Dubai late on Thursday night. An Air Force plane carried Benazir's body to Sukkur from Islamabad early on Friday ahead of the burial.
Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir's children and a number of Pakistan People's Party leaders accompanied her body to her hometown. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry sources said Zardari and the three children had a brief chance to see her body before the plane took off.
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Mia Soomro has ordered a high-level judicial inquiry into the killing. Authorities have tightened security across the country and a red alert has been sounded across the nation.
Government sources said the Army will be deployed in Larkana at the time of the burial. All entry points to Larkana have been sealed off. The Pakistan Government has declared three days of state mourning.
Nawaz Sharif has postponed his visit to Benazir's ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Baksh in Larkana till Saturday due to security reasons.
Benazir was assassinated on Thursday by an unidentified assassin, who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. At least 20 others were killed in the attack on the rally for the January 8 parliamentary elections, where the 54-year-old former prime minister had just spoken.
Benazir's assassination led to violent protests across the country. Angry supporters rioted in the southern port city of Karachi after her killing, firing shots at police, setting tires and cars on fire and burning a gas station.
There was chaos as hundreds of people mobbed the simple wood coffin with a glass lid in which Benazir's body was carried, allowing people to see her wrapped in a white cloth.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock at Benazir's assassination. He says that her death is a loss not just for Pakistan but also for the entire Subcontinent.
“She was not an ordinary political leader. She left deep impression on her Subcontinent friends. Bhutto was an outstanding champion of reconciliation between India and Pakistan and it is a great tragedy for the people of Pakistan and family who has suffered a big blow with her death,” adds he.
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