Bhutto's political heir, her Oxford student son Bilawal

12 April 2012

Benazir Bhutto's son, an Oxford student, appeared to be emerging as her political heir last night as intelligence experts worked to identify his mother's assassin.

Bilawal, 19, is reportedly to be given a figurehead role initially in rallying the furious and grief-stricken millions who support the Pakistan People's Party, founded by his grandfather then led by his mother.

Quoting party sources, a leading Pakistan TV station reported last night that Benazir herself had designated Bilawal her political heir. It is he who will read his mother's will to senior officials of the PPP today, his father Asif Ali Zardari told the BBC.

And if enough calm is restored across the nation and Pakistan's scheduled general election goes ahead in nine days' time - a decision is due to be announced today - Bilawal will be expected to give the PPP the emotional lift to carry it to victory.

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Family grief: Benazir's son and political heir, Bilawal (circled) and family beside her coffin yesterday

Because of Bilawal's youth and inexperience, Mr Zardari, currently living in Dubai, is likely to take immediate charge of the party on the understanding that he will step aside in favour of his son when he is ready to take up his mother's political mantle.

Mr Zardari is a controversial figure. During Benazir's two terms as prime minister he was known as Mr Ten Percent for taking bribes on contracts and was later jailed for corruption. But he has the experience to secure the continuation of the political dynasty which began with Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister.

Bhutto was overthrown by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 and later hanged by the military regime.

His daughter Benazir was always aware that her own enemies wanted her dead long before her killer struck her down on Thursday at the age of 54. Now, handsome, softly-spoken Bilawal is expected to continue the tragic dynasty.

At 19, he is said to have a keen interest in history and politics and Benazir was reportedly grooming him for a political career by registering him as a Pakistani citizen through the country's embassy in Dubai earlier this year, even though he has spent most of his life outside Pakistan.

He had been due later this week to return to Oxford, where both his mother and grandfather also studied. Instead, he flew to Pakistan with his father and two younger sisters from Dubai to attend his mother's funeral on Friday.

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Death and destruction: A red flash from a pistol as the killer strikes in Rawalpindi

Looking grief-stricken but dignified and composed, he was comforted by his father as he spoke to some of the thousands of mourners who clamoured to pay their last respects in her home village of Gardi Khuda Bakhsh.

But around the country, mourning was also taking the form of savage rioting and looting. By nightfall yesterday, 42 people had died across the land.

The government hopes that a quick identification of the suicide-murderer who struck Miss Bhutto down will help quell the violence. Grainy images of a balding man firing two shots at Miss Bhutto before detonating an explosion are now being enhanced by security agencies investigating whether the plot was the work of a rogue terror outfit or was masterminded by either Al Qaeda affiliates or renegade elements within President Musharraf's government.

Meanwhile, last night an English-language Pakistan TV channel broadcast pictures taken by an amateur photographer which, it said, showed that two assassins took part in the attack.

One photo shows a man in a dark suit and wearing sunglasses within 12 yards of Miss Bhutto and pointing what appears to be a gun at her. Just behind him is another man, dressed all in white, who the Dawn News channel said was an associate of the gunman and who activated the bomb. Another picture shows Mrs Bhutto falling back into her car and disappearing from view before the explosives are triggered.

Security sources have revealed that 11lb of explosives and two pistols found near the body of the assassin are being looked at by forensic experts and fingerprints taken from the killer's corpse are being checked against the records of the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence arm.

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Chaos: Rioting continues in Rawalpindi

President Musharraf's interior ministry claimed to have gathered "irrefutable evidence" that Al Qaeda carried out the attack by intercepting a congratulations message to the killers from Baitullah Mehsud, an Al Qaeda militant and tribal leader.

But many people in the country of 165million are suspicious of the speed with which this was uncovered and yesterday a spokesman for Mehsud, based in the lawless lands bordering Afghanistan, said: "He had no involvement. It is against tribal tradition and custom to attack a woman."

Miss Bhutto's supporters have also dismissed as 'ludicrous' a suggestion from the Pakistani authorities that she died after hitting her head on a sunroof during the suicide attack.

In the capital, Islamabad, Pakistan's interior ministry spokesman, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, rejected calls for an international investigation into the assassination, saying there was "no need for a Scotland Yard inquiry".

He said: "This is not an ordinary criminal inquiry in which we require the assistance of the international community. We can handle this ourselves."

Support for Miss Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party is being fanned by widespread anger at Musharraf, who many in Pakistan believe to be either directly involved in Bhutto's killing or culpable for failing to give her adequate security.

Brigadier Cheema insisted the government had nothing to hide and even offered to exhume Benazir's body if that was the wish of her party.

The continuing violence across Pakistan intensified concerns that Islamic extremists could seize the country's nuclear arsenal if the state descends into anarchy. Terrorists have already been helped by rogue military officers in failed assassination attempts against Musharraf.

There are fears that the violence will worsen today when Benazir's soyem - the traditional religious service held three days after the burial - attracts crowds across the country.

In Miss Bhutto's former political stronghold of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, plumes of black smoke hundreds of feet high bore testimony to the rioting. More than a thousand burned-out vehicles littered the city - left to the mercy of the mob after their owners ran out of petrol because the filling stations had closed.

Normally bustling roads into the city lay deserted. Taxi and rickshaw drivers were attacked for attempting to ply their trade. Government Rangers were given the authority to open fire as panic-buying shoppers fought with one another after a rumour circulated that supplies were about to be exhausted.

Hospitals and pharmacies were also attacked, with men firing into the air and pelting staff with stones to deter them from going into work or issuing medicine. Only a handful of stores and petrol stations remained open, guarded by armed police and paramilitary forces.

Among those caught up in the turmoil were hundreds of British expats in Karachi, who were warned by the consulate not to leave their homes.

Dan Bavington, 73, from Westerham, Kent, owner of an engineering firm in Karachi, where he has lived for 47 years, said: "The public disorder is the worst I have known since just before Mrs Bhutto's father was deposed in the late Seventies. If the looting continues I can see the army imposing a curfew.

"When people are being stopped from handing out medicine and charity ambulances are being set alight, banks and shops looted, then the authorities have to act."

Mr Bavington and his wife Ruth, 72, have had their son Stephen and his family from Birmingham staying with them over Christmas and New Year.

They were housebound without electricity until Mr Bavington obtained some fuel for a small generator.

But Mr Bavington said yesterday: "I did not leave Pakistan, even after many Britons were advised to after 9/11.

"I believe I have a responsibility to my local company and employees not to run away when there is unrest but I am genuinely fearful now of this getting out of control.

"I am just hoping and praying that, with the amount of foreign investment now in Pakistan, everyone will work together to restore calm."

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