By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Ritual prayers, known as “rasm-e-qul”, were held across Pakistan for the peace of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto Sunday, the largest congregation taking place at Bhutto House in Garhi Khuda Bux, Larkana in Sind.
Hundreds of thousands of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) mourning workers gathered at the Bhutto House and recited Quran before a public prayer meeting at 11:30 a.m.
Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, son Bilawal, nephew Zuilfikar Ali (Junior) and others went to her grave where they laid floral wreaths and offered prayers for the departed soul.
Floral wreath on behalf of Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was also laid at the grave. Kayani was Bhutto’s deputy military secretary during her first tenure as prime minister 1988-90.
In the Pakistan capital, funeral prayers in absentia (ghaibana namaz-e-jinaza) were offered in which over 3,000 people participated. Similar prayers were also held at Rawalpindi and other parts of the country.
Bhutto, 54, was died Thursday evening minutes after she addressed a campaign rally at Liaqat Bagh in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. Her assassination has evoked unrest in Pakistan with at least 32 people killed and hundreds injured so far.