NAUDERO, Pakistan, Dec 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Thousands of mourners wept and beat their heads and chests as the body of Benazir Bhutto, slain former Pakistan prime minister, left her ancestral home at the start of the funeral procession on Friday.
Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, accompanied the closed coffin draped with the green, red and black tricolour of her Pakistan People's Party as it began the 7-km (4-mile) journey by ambulance to the family mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, a village set among paddy fields in the southern province of Sindh.
The two-time premier was gunned down by an assassin who then blew himself up in an attack that killed a total of 16 people at the end of an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
Bhutto had returned to Pakistan in October from more than eight years of self-imposed exile after reaching an understanding with President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in 1999, ahead of an election later set for Jan. 8.
Although Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda are among the suspects, many of her supporters blamed Musharraf and the United States for her death.
Chants of "Shame on the killer Musharraf, shame on the killer U.S." were heard from the throng lining the road and standing on rooftops.
Some protesters chanted defiance: "No matter how many Bhuttos you will kill, a Bhutto will emerge from each house."
Days after surviving a suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi on Oct. 19 that killed at least 139 people, Bhutto visited Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to pray at the tomb of her father, buried there after being overthrown and hanged three decades ago.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister, lies alongside his sons Murtaza and Shahnawaz in the white-domed mausoleum Benazir Bhutto ordered to be built.
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