Within 24 hours of her assassination by a suicide bomber, Benazir Bhutto was yesterday buried alongside her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in an emotional ceremony that drew tens of thousands of activists from her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
Her death has triggered a backlash against the government appointed by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, who is being blamed for having failed to protect Ms Bhutto, the country's most popular politician, as she embarked on a perilous election campaign.
The government seems set to proceed with elections scheduled for January 8th. "Right now the elections stand where they were," said Mohammedmian Soomro, caretaker prime minister.
But the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PMLN), an opposition party led by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said after Ms Bhutto's murder that it would boycott the poll.
Crowds of protesters yesterday burned cars and destroyed private property across the country, triggering concerns over the government's ability to maintain law and order in the nuclear-armed state.
The Pakistani government responded by ordering paramilitary and military troops to take charge of sensitive locations. But some analysts warned that the measure would not address the underlying discontent.
"The solution lies in President Musharraf stepping down, because he is the problem," said Ahsan Iqbal of PMLN.
The wild card in the future of the political process is the PPP, which had been led by Ms Bhutto for nearly three decades. It has yet to announce whether it will contest the polls.
Senior leaders warned that grassroots pressure was mounting on the party to join the boycott, a move that would leave the field open for parties loyal to Mr Musharraf.
"At a time when we have lost our leader in such a brutal and bloody manner, we have to be realistic," said one PPP leader. "We are going to be at a severe disadvantage without Benazir Bhutto and that's a big reason for us to boycott."
Officials from the interior ministry said they had evidence linking the assassination to al-Qaeda. But the Brussels-based International Crisis Group called for the UN Security Council to order an investigation into the killing, saying Pakistan's military-backed interim government was not in a position to carry out a fair investigation.
In public statements after an assassination attempt on October 18th, when she returned from exile, Ms Bhutto claimed that some elements of Pakistan's security services were trying to kill her.
"How do you prove that the hands of the state were completely clean?" said Abida Hussain, PPP leader and former member of parliament. "This government's credibility is so low that it's impossible to believe them."
PPP leaders maintained that breakaway factions linked to one of Pakistan's intelligence services were behind the assassination.
Ms Bhutto returned home from self-imposed exile in October, hoping to become prime minister for a third time. But as she left the rally she stood to wave to supporters from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof car. An attacker shot at her before blowing himself up, police and witnesses said.
The interior ministry said Ms Bhutto had not been shot, nor hit by shrapnel, but had been killed when the force of the explosion smashed her head against a lever on the sun-roof. Officials had earlier said she was shot in the head and neck.
She was buried alongside her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.
Her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, who both died in unexplained circumstances, are also buried in the mausoleum she herself had ordered to be built.
- (Financial Times service; additional reporting Reuters)