Garhi Khuda Baksh: Assassinated Pakistani opppostion leader Benazir Bhutto was on Friday buried in the ancestral graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh near the grave of her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, state television reported.

Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari, their three children and several senior leaders of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) attended the funeral.

Hundreds of supporters of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) drove in convoys to Larkana, the Bhutto family's main stronghold in Sindh, to attend her funeral.

The funeral passed off peacefully as authorities struggled to contain the mounting anger that erupted into violence across the country that has so far claimed at least 19 lives.

Officials ordered parmilitary forces in Karachi, a Bhutto stronghold, to shoot rioters on sight and sent troops ito several ther cities in the south.

The ambulance carrying the body of Muslim world's first woman premier was trailed by scores of people, who jostled to get a last glimpse of their beloved leader. Several people climbed trees and poles along the roadside and others took up position atop a mausoleum.

The mourners were hushed during the funeral prayers and the subsequent funeral, which passed off peacefully.

The funeral was attended by a large number of PPP leaders, including Bhutto's deputy Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Babar Awan, Raza Rabbani and Jahangir Badar.

Hundreds of people rushed into the three-domed mausoleum to pour handfuls of earth over Bhutto's final resting place as her grief-stricken husband and son looked on. PPP leaders appeared unprepared to control the large crowd that entered the structure.

'Ghaibana namaz-e-janaza' or funeral prayers in absentia were offered for Bhutto in many cities and towns across Pakistan.

In Hyderabad, a large number of PPP leaders, workers and people attended the 'namaz-i-janaza' held after the Friday prayers. Bhutto had visited the mausoleum to pray at her father's grave shortly after returning to the country for a long spell in self-exile in October.

All around Naudero and Garhi Khuda Buksh were signs of the violent protests by PPP workers. Burnt cars were seen on the streets of Naudero and a train, its locomotive still smouldering, lay stationary on the tracks a short distance from the mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Buksh. The protestors also set fire to several buildings, including the local excise and taxation offices during violence this morning.

Bhutto's sister Sanam, who flew in from London to join the funeral, told reporters that the PPP had strong ties with the public and the Bhutto family had made sacrifices for them.

"Benazir Bhutto also sacrificed her life and became a martyr," she said.

Muslim clerics strongly condemned suicide attacks in the name of jehad in their sermons. They said such attacks were against the teachings of Islam and appealed to people to exercise restraint and maintain peace.

In Karachi, Archbishop Evarist Pinto, the head of the Roman Catholic church, announced a three-day mourning for Bhutto during which special masses and prayer services will be held in churches in Karachi.

Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday in a gun and bomb attack that killed around 20 people as she left a party rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.

Bhutto, a two-time former premier, was spearheading the PPP's campaign for January 8 general elections.

Source : Agencies