Pakistan Grieves As Bhutto Buried

Cries of "Benazir is alive, Bhutto is alive," were heard as hundreds of thousands of mourners flocked to Benazir Bhutto's funeral procession Friday.

Link: CNN Coverage

The opposition leader's plain wood coffin made its way to its final resting place at the family mausoleum in Bhutto's ancestral hometown in southern Pakistan.

One mourner said Bhutto wasn't just an opposition leader, but a national one and he didn't know what was going to happen next.

Even before the procession began Friday, Bhutto's supporters rampaged through cities to protest her assassination less than two weeks before a crucial election.

Protesters ransacked banks, a gas station, and torched train stations. At least 23 people have been killed in violence since the 54-year-old former Pakistani prime minister was killed by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. She was rushed to an area hospital for emergency surgery, but died about an hour later.

At least 20 others also died in the attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

The government announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, including the closing of schools, commercial centers and banks.

Thursday's killing of President Pervez Musharraf's most powerful political opponent has plunged Pakistan into turmoil and badly damaged plans to restore democracy in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

There are no plans to postpone the Jan. 8 parliamentary election.

Al-Qaida Responsible?

The FBI and Homeland Security reportedly told U.S. law enforcement agencies that al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

That word came in a bulletin that a law enforcement official summarized for The Associated Press. The official asked to remain anonymous, because he's not authorized to speak publicly about the bulletin.

The bulletin cites Islamist Web sites as the sources of the al-Qaida claim. The sites also say that al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, had planned the assassination. Al-Zawahri decried Bhutto's return in a video message this month and called for attacks on all the candidates in Pakistan's parliamentary elections.

Bhutto had pledged to redouble Pakistan's fight against Islamic militants. She had received threats from virtually all militant groups that make Pakistan their home. That includes al-Qaida, as well as Taliban-style radicals and tribal insurgents along the Afghan border.