Thousands mourn Bhutto
2009-12-27 10:09
Garhi Khuda Bakhsh - Pakistan government officials on Sunday led thousands of loyalists in mourning the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, two years after her killing.
Several thousand faithful gathered outside the mausoleum in southern Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village but complained that security officials prevented them from entering the compound.
Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops stood guard, shutting the gates to the mausoleum, restricting entry to all but government officials and influential people, said an AFP correspondent.
"We have intensified our security to protect people from any law and order situation," said senior police official Zulfiqar Tunio.
He said strict security measures were in place to protect President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who showered rose petals on the grave and prayed over her tomb with cabinet ministers.
But there were complaints from ordinary mourners who took swipe at Zardari's government, whose approval ratings have plummeted.
"The rulers have made Benazir a leader of the rich and she is no longer a leader of the poor as she was during her life," said Raheeman Bibi, 65.
"We have come here to visit our leader's grave but they are only allowing the rich and not the poor people like us," she added.
"The government of our own party is preventing us from visiting her grave, which clearly shows they are fearing for their life," said Ghulam Shabbir, 55, carrying a party flag and a large framed photograph of Bhutto.
Zardari and his three children visited the grave in private late on Saturday.
Sunday's turnout was in stark contrast to the hundreds of thousands who flocked to the grave on the first anniversary.
The government called for a UN inquiry into Bhutto's killing after her party won a general election in February 2008 with supporters angered by conflicting accounts of how she died and who was responsible.
They cast doubt on a Pakistani probe into her death, criticised authorities for hosing down the scene of the attack within minutes - allegedly destroying evidence - and questioning whether she was killed by a gunshot or the blast.
A UN commission, which says its mandate is limited to fact-finding and does not include a criminal investigation, is to submit a report that will be shared with the Pakistani government and the UN Security Council.
