By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination sparked violent and emotional outbursts all across Pakistan, with mobs taking to the streets crying, weeping, howling – and attacking government property.
Protestors took out their anger by attacking and burning government vehicles as well as gas stations besides blocking roads with burning tyres.
All markets in major towns immediately closed, and people were seen rushing home from the streets.
“It is chaos everywhere,” a Lahore resident told IANS over telephone.
Bhutto, 54, was shot in the head and the neck a minute after two powerful bombs exploded at her election rally in Rawalpindi where she had addressed a huge gathering ahead of the Jan 8 election.
In Rawalpindi, mobs burnt several government vehicles and blocked roads. Tens of thousands gathered outside the Rawalpindi General Hospital where her body was kept after the murder.
Many beat their chests to express grief. Others broke windowpanes of the hospital, waylaid and burnt vehicles on the roads outside the hospital and also uprooted hoardings of political parties allied to President Pervez Musharraf.
In Sindh, the Bhutto family’s home province, houses of politicians opposed to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came under attack.
For the first time in history, PPP workers blocked the main Faisal Avenue leading to Islamabad. Hundreds walked towards Islamabad chanting slogans against Musharraf.
Reports from Karachi said that two petrol pumps and several vehicles were set on fire.
In Lahore, hundreds of thousands of PPP supporters gathered at the Mall Road and burnt more than 20 vehicles.
The news about Bhutto’s death spread like wildfire throughout the country. People frantically telephoned one another, choking the mobile telephone network. Many phone systems in cities got jammed.