Rawalpindi: Enraged crowds rioted across Pakistan and hopes for democracy hung by a thread after Benazir Bhutto was gunned down on Thursday as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle. The death of President Pervez Musharraf's most powerful opponent threw the nation into chaos just 12 days before elections, and threatened its already unsteady role as a key fighter against Islamic terror.
The murder of Benazir, one of Pakistan's most famous and enduring politicians, sparked violence that killed at least 16 people including three Pakistani policemen and plunged efforts to restore democracy to this nuclear-armed US ally into turmoil.
Another opposition politician, Nawaz Sharif, announced he was boycotting January 8 parliamentary elections in which Benazir was hoping to recapture the premiership. Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammed Mian Soomro said on Friday the government has no immediate plan to postpone the elections.
Benazir, 54, was struck down amid scenes of blood and chaos as an unknown gunman opened fire and, according to witnesses and police, blew himself up, killing 20 other people.
Musharraf blamed Islamic terrorists, pledging in a nationally televised speech that "we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
President Bush, who spoke briefly by phone with Musharraf, looked tense as he spoke to reporters, denouncing the "murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy."
US intelligence officials said they were trying to determine the validity of purported claims of responsibility by al-Qaida, stressing they still couldn't say who was responsible.
Benazir's death marked yet another grim chapter in Pakistan's bloodstained history, 28 years after her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, another ex-prime minister, was hanged by a military dictatorship in the same city where she was killed.
"The repercussions of her murder will continue to unfold for months, even years," read a mournful editorial in the Dawn newspaper. "What is clear is that Pakistan's political landscape will never be the same, having lost one of its finest daughters."
Benazir will be buried near her father's grave in the family's ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Friday afternoon, said Nazir Dkhoki, a spokesman for Benazir's party. He added that Benazir's husband and three children have arrived from Dubai to attend.
Her death left her Pakistan People's Party leaderless and plunged the Muslim nation of 160 million into violence and recriminations, with Benazir supporters accusing Musharraf's government of failing to protect her in the wake of death threats and previous attempts on her life.
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As the news spread, supporters gathered at the hospital where Benazir had been taken, smashed glass doors, stoned cars and chanted, "Killer, Killer, Musharraf."
At least 10 people were killed across the country in the violence following the assassination, including one police officer who died of his wounds early on Friday.
Benazir's supporters in many towns burned banks, shops and state-run grocery stores. Some torched ruling party offices, Pakistani media reported.
On Friday, about 4,000 Benazir party supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar and several hundred of them ransacked the office of the main pro-Musharraf party, burning furniture and stationery. The office was empty and no one was hurt.
Musharraf called senior staff into an emergency meeting to discuss a response to the killing and whether to postpone the election, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
Soomro, head of the interim government that is meant to oversee the vote, said that if there was any decision on delaying the election it would be done in consultation with all political parties.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference. "We will consult all the political parties to take any decision about it. I'm ready to meet them right now."
The killing appeared to shut off a possible avenue for a credible return to democracy after eight years under Musharraf's increasingly unpopular rule, and left a string of unanswered questions, chiefly whether it could strengthen Musharraf by eliminating a strong rival, or weaken him by sparking uncontrollable riots.
The US was struggling to reformulate its plan to stabilise the country based on a rapprochement between Benazir and Musharraf. Benazir had returned in October after nearly a decade in exile hoping for a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, but had become his fierce critic, accusing elements in the ruling party of backing militants to kill her.
Pakistani analysts were plunged into gloom.
"This assassination is the most serious setback for democracy in Pakistan," said Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore's University of Management Sciences. "It shows extremists are powerful enough to disrupt the democratic process."
Analyst Talat Masood, a retired general, said: "Conditions in the country have reached a point where it is too dangerous for political parties to operate."
Sharif, another former premier who now leads an opposition party, demanded Musharraf resign immediately and announced his party would boycott the elections, seen as vital to restoring democracy.
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He also called for the resignation of Musharraf, a former army chief who toppled Sharif in a 1999 coup.
"Musharraf is the cause of all the problems. The federation of Pakistan cannot remain intact in the presence of President Musharraf," he said.
Next to Musharraf, Benazir was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996.
An instantly recognizable figure with graceful features under an ever-present head scarf, she bore the legacy of her hanged father and was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat Islamic extremism.
It was a theme she had often returned to in recent campaign speeches.
Addressing more than 5,000 supporters Thursday in Rawalpindi, Benazir dismissed the notion that Pakistan needed foreigners to help quell resurgent militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida in the area bordering Afghanistan.
"Why should foreign troops come in? We can take care of this, I can take care of this, you can take care of this," she said.
As Benazir left the rally in a white SUV, youths chanted her name and supportive slogans, said Sardar Qamar Hayyat, an official from Benazir's party who was about 10 yards away.
Despite the danger of physical exposure, a smiling Benazir stuck her head out of the sunroof and responded, he said.
"Then I saw a thin young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down," he said.
Benazir was rushed into surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head.
Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. She was given an open-heart massage, but the spinal cord damage was too great, he said.
"At 6:16 pm (1846 hrs IST) she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Benazir's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.
Hours later, supporters carried Benazir's body out of the hospital in a plain wooden coffin.
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Benazir had returned to Pakistan from nearly a decade in exile on October 18, and her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, who killed more than 150 people. She narrowly escaped injury.
Rawalpindi, a former capital, has a history of political violence. The park where Benazir made her last speech is the same one where the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot to death in 1951. It is named after him.
Musharraf survived two bombing attacks here in 2003. Earlier that year, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was captured in Rawalpindi. In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in the city.
Benazir's father was hanged in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder - an execution that led to violent protests across the country similar to those that raged Thursday.
Thursday's rally was Benazir's first since returning to Pakistan, Musharraf having forced her to scrap a meeting here last month citing security fears. Hundreds of riot police manned security checkpoints at the park.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Benazir just hours before her death, called her a brave woman with a clear vision "for her own country, for Afghanistan and for the region - a vision of democracy and prosperity and peace."
Republican Patrick Kennedy, DR.I, visiting Pakistan with Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he was just leaving his hotel room for dinner with Benazir at her home when he got the news.
"I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press by phone. "Her death really dashed the hope of many here in Pakistan and that's why there's so much disillusionment and anger being vented through these protests that are lighting up the sky tonight as people set fires all over the countryside."
US intelligence agencies said it was to soon to say who carried out the attack.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the agency "continues to work with our US intelligence community partners reviewing the al-Qaida claims for responsibility for any intelligence value. The validity of those claims are undetermined."
The statement came after a law enforcement official told the AP that a national FBI and Homeland Security bulletin to law enforcement agencies cited Islamist Web sites as saying al-Qaida had claimed responsibility. The official asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Director of National Intelligence spokesman Ross Feinstein said his agency was "in no position right now to confirm who may have been responsible."
The UN Security Council vigorously denounced the killing and urged "all Pakistanis to exercise restraint and maintain stability in the country."
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