Islamabad: Mukhtaran Mai, who gained prominence for her campaign to seek justice after she was gang-raped, has mourned the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto calling her "the last hope for the women of Pakistan."

"I am feeling lonely at this time because Bhutto was the last hope of women activists. I am proud of being a woman because of her (courage)," Mukhtaran Mai told the Dawn newspaper.

Mukhtaran Mai said Bhutto was a great leader and her assassination was a national tragedy. She said the killing of Bhutto was tantamount to the "murder of democracy in Pakistan" and the country now had no one who could represent it at the world level.

Mai, who was gang-raped by men of higher clan, also demanded a probe into the killing by foreign investigators. She said her organisation, formed with the settlement money, would hold a "Quran Khwani" for Bhutto and that she would visit her ancestral village in Sindh province to offer her condolences to the slain leader's family.

Source : PTI