Slain Bhutto laid to rest amid tears, cries

GARHI KHUDA BAKSH: Aassassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest in her family's ancestral grave to scenes of searing emotion from hundreds of thousands of mourners.

State television said Bhutto was buried at the mausoleum after an imam led the massive crowd in funeral prayers.

A huge roar greeted her coffin, wrapped in the black, green and red flag of her Pakistan People's Party, as it was borne towards the Bhutto mausoleum in a white vehicle.

It took more than two hours to crawl the five kilometres from her family home in Naudero to the private mausoleum in Ghari Khuda Baksh.

Many mourners wailed and beat their chests in an outpouring of grief as the casket passed the vast crowds hanging out of every building and packing every street corner.

As authorities struggled to keep a lid on the seething anger that erupted into violence across the country, the government for the first time pointed a finger at al-Qaeda for her slaying.

The extent of the violence has paralysed the nation, triggering alarm around the world and throwing scheduled January 8 elections into disarray.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said Bhutto had been on an al-Qaeda hit-list and it was likely the Islamic extremist network played a role in Thursday's suicide attack that killed her and around 20 others.

"Benazir has been on the hit-list of al-Qaeda," he told AFP. "Now there is every possibility that al-Qaeda is behind this tragic attack to undermine the security of Pakistan."

Officials ordered paramilitary forces in PPP stronghold Karachi to shoot rioters on sight and sent troops into several other cities in the south.

At least 19 people have been killed in violence since Bhutto's death, and there have been angry demonstrations in several cities, with mobs ransacking offices and torching buildings and vehicles.

In Rawalpindi, the scene of her killing, police fired tear gas, and a crowd of some 1,500 stormed the office of a pro-government party in Peshawar.

The two-time former premier was buried next to her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also a prime minister and who was executed by the military in 1979 after being ousted from power.

Bhutto's husband and three children accompanied the coffin as it arrived by helicopter in nearby Naudero ahead of the ceremony.

Bhutto, 54, was leaving a rally where she had been campaigning for the vote when a suicide bomber shot her in the neck before blowing himself up.

US President George W. Bush described the killing as a "cowardly act" and telephoned Musharraf to urge Pakistan to stay on the path of democracy