BB buried amid mass grief, anger

By M.B. Kalhoro
Dawn, 29 December

LARKANA, Dec 28: Overcome with grief and shock, thousands of people converged on Garhi Khuda Bux to bury former prime minister Benazir Bhutto next to her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in her family mausoleum on Friday.

Earlier, the slain opposition leader’s body was flown to Sukkur from Rawalpindi in a C-130 plane. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and children Bilawal (19), Bakhtawar (17) and Aseefa (14) came aboard the same plane. The body was then taken to Moenjodaro airport by helicopter.

Mourners wept inconsolably and beat their chests when Ms Bhutto’s body finally reached Naudero House. They jostled to see the coffin of their leader who lost her life while acknowledging the cheers of jubilant party activists near Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh.

Ghinwa Bhutto, the estranged sister-in-law of the slain prime minister, came to Naudero House. She was accompanied by Fatima Bhutto and Zulfikar Junior.

Sanam Bhutto, the youngest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, flew in from London. She has lost her three elder siblings to unnatural deaths. Her father was hanged in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.

Mr Zardari and Bilawal sat in the ambulance that took the coffin, draped with the green, red and black tricolour of the PPP, to Garhi Khuda Bux from Naudero. Former Larkana nazim Khursheed Junejo drove the ambulance.

The road to the mausoleum was packed with so many Bhutto supporters that the journey of a couple of kilometres took over two hours. Mourners, who came mostly on foot, climbed the rooftop of the three-domed mausoleum.

The PPP leaders who attended the funeral included Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naheed Khan, Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Raza Rabbani and Taj Haidar.

Mr Zardari, Bilawal, Mr Junejo, Shahid Bhutto, Nadir Magsi and Zulfikar Junior lowered Ms Bhutto’s body in the grave.

Wearing a black dress, a tearful Bilawal laid a wreath at his mother’s grave.

Many mourners chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf, former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and the United States. Women wailed as men, struggling to fight off tears, said the people of Sindh had been orphaned.

Enraged protesters set fire to a post office, a utility store and a local bank branch. They also torched Khushhal Khan Khattak Express whose 10 bogies had already been set ablaze at the Shahnawaz Bhutto railway station.

In Larkana, protesters went on the rampage and torched the offices of district nazim. They burnt five vehicles including two fire brigade vehicles standing in the secretariat, sources said.

The protesters damaged gold shops in Shahi Bazaar and burnt tyres. They damaged the main Wapda office and set fire to vehicles standing there. They also set ablaze the railway office and the municipal committee offices. They also damaged the offices of the Sui Southern Gas Company and a local telecommunications company.

Rioting took place at such a scale that smouldering vehicles stood on most Larkana roads at the end of the day.