Thousands throng Bhutto funeral

NAUDERO, PAKISTAN —  During her years in self-exile, Benazir Bhutto had a soaring white marble mausoleum built in the fields outside her ancestral village to honor her slain father. On Friday, she was buried there beside him.

Amid tumultuous scenes of grief, Bhutto’s plain wooden coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People’s Party, was borne by ambulance from the family residence to the tomb.

Hundreds of thousands of weeping mourners lined the roads or converged on the village of Naudero for the funeral of Bhutto, 54, who was killed a day earlier as she left a campaign rally. The village lies in the heart of the southern province of Sindh, home to her wealthy landowning clan.

Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari; son Bilawal, 19; and daughters Bakhtwar, 17 and Aseefa, 14, prayed at the shrine she built to her father, former President and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was deposed and eventually hanged by a military dictator in 1979.

The swift burial, less than 24 hours after Bhutto’s death, was in keeping with Muslim tradition. The attack on Bhutto’s convoy, which included gunfire and a suicide bombing, took place in Rawalpindi, the same city in which her father was executed. The garrison city is adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.

Bhutto had hoped to lead her party to victory in elections scheduled for Jan. 8, a vote the ruling party said Friday there were no plans to postpone. Instead, party faithful gathered to bid their leader a final farewell.

Mourners, many of whom had trekked for hours on foot to pay their respects, stood on rooftops and lined the roadside to see her funeral procession pass.

People beat their chests, flung flower petals and sobbed as Koranic verses echoed through the high-domed mausoleum.

One by one, they lined up to fling a symbolic shovelful of earth into the grave, after Bhutto’s son and husband had lowered the coffin into the ground.

Benazir Bhutto was heir to a powerful political dynasty, but the lineage may end with her. For now, her children are too young and her husband too tainted by corruption allegations to step into her role.

Supporters, though, refused to believe that the family’s political legacy would die with her.

“As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto!” they chanted.

Many of the mourners looked utterly bereft as they watched the funeral rites.

“Benazir Bhutto is physically not with us,” said Abdul Aziz Rajib, who said he had walked 12 miles to attend the funeral. “But spiritually, she will be with us always.”

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laura.king@latimes.com

Special correspondent Khoro reported from Naudero and Times staff writer King from Islamabad.