Bhutto is laid to rest

Last Modified: 28 Dec 2007
By: Jonathan Rugman, Nicholas Glass

Pakistan has named an al-Qaeda commander they hold responsible for Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

A spokesman for the interior ministry claimed they had phone intercepts indicating Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader from South Waziristan, in the lawless west of the country, was behind her assassination.

Pakistan's interior ministry also revealed Benazir Bhutto was not shot as first thought but died from a head fracture caused by the impact of the blast.

The revelations emerged after Ms Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father in a village in the Larkana district.

The ceremony at the family mausoleum was attended by tens of thousands of supporters, many blaming President Musharraf for her assassination.

Sindh province saw the worst of a second day of violent protest that left more than 30 dead in a night of rioting in Karachi and in today in Hyderabad.

Despite demands to delay elections the countries' caretaker prime minister insisted the poll will currently still go ahead on January 8.

In Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh, police and army troops patrolled the streets with orders to shoot rioters on sight.

Vehicles were torched and shops and banks were set alight - several people including a policeman were shot dead during violence overnight. Though overall the trouble was less than many had feared.

The authorities appear to have gained the upper hand on the streets of the Sindh capital Karachi.

The Pakistani internior ministry says Ms Bhutto was killed not because of a lack of police, but because she chose to stand up through her car's sunroof.

An aide of the Bhutto family has described this explaination as a "pack of lies".

The assassination prompted scenes of mourning at packed mosques across the country where many British pakistanis expressed shock at her murder.

In Bradford, where Ms Bhutto had close family and political connections, the Pakistan flag flew alongside the union jack at half mast.