Bhutto's body flown to home province

By Nadeem Soomro

NAUDERO, Pakistan (Reuters) - The body of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was taken to her family village for burial on Friday, a day after her assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history.

Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence, especially in her native Sindh province, and stoked fears a January 8 election meant to return Pakistan to civilian-led democracy could be put off.

World leaders urged Pakistan not to be deflected from a course toward democracy, as fears of further instability in a region racked by Islamist militancy roiled markets on Friday and triggered a flight to less risky assets such as bonds and gold.

Thousands of mourners thronged Bhutto's ancestral home as her body arrived in a military aircraft, accompanied by her husband Asif Ali Zardari and their three children.

People began crying and wailing as Bhutto's coffin was brought to her family home in an ambulance.

"Show patience. Give us courage to bear this loss," Zardari urged the mourners as the coffin was carried into the house.

Bhutto, 54, had hoped the huge popular following she enjoyed among the Pakistani poor would propel her to power for the third time as prime minister in an election meant to stabilize a country struggling to contain Islamist violence.

But as she left the election rally, where she spoke of threats to her life, she stood up to wave to supporters from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle. An attacker fired shots at her before blowing himself up, police and witnesses said.

She was pronounced dead in hospital in Rawalpindi, the home of the Pakistan army and the same city where her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.

"It is the act of those who want Pakistan to disintegrate," said Farzana Raja, a senior official from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. "They have finished the Bhutto family."

Across Pakistan, a country used to political violence and ruled by the military for more than half of its life, friends and foes alike were stunned by the death of a woman many had once criticized as a feudal leader buoyed by popular support while enjoying the riches of the family dynasty.

"People are very angry. They attacked banks and government offices. There were no police anywhere. Two shops selling weapons were also looted," said Maula Baksh, a journalist based in Larkana.

At least four people were killed in Karachi in hours of violence that initially erupted following her killing, and on Friday unidentified gunmen shot dead a police constable in the city.

Former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto's old political rival, said his party would boycott the January election.

He blamed President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but has since stepped down from the army, for creating instability. "Free elections are not possible ... Musharraf is the root cause of all problems," he said.