Investigation of Bhutto Killing Ordered

LARKANA, Pakistan — Thousands of mourners attended the burial of Murtaza Bhutto, estranged brother of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, on Saturday as Pakistan named a judge to investigate his killing by police.

Murtaza Bhutto was buried at the ancestral graveyard at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, about 15 miles from Larkana, beside the grave of his younger brother, Shahnawaz, and near that of his father, executed former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

More than 10,000 people turned up at the graveyard amid rice fields, and several fainted in sweltering heat.

Murtaza Bhutto’s sobbing widow, Ghanva, appeared briefly in the crowd before her husband’s bullet-riddled body was lowered into the grave.

His body was flown to the family home of Larkana, north of Karachi, where he and several supporters were killed in a shootout with police Friday night.

Benazir Bhutto and her mother, Nusrat, also arrived in Larkana but did not attend the burial because of the crowds. Earlier, Benazir Bhutto wailed and prayed over her brother’s body at a Karachi hospital.

In a mark of deep mourning, she went barefoot to the hospital where Murtaza Bhutto, 42, died after being hit by up to eight bullets in the gunfight near his home in an affluent area of Karachi.

She flew overnight from Islamabad to Karachi after hearing of the death of the brother who had bitterly opposed her government in a three-year political confrontation.

Police blamed the shooting on Murtaza Bhutto’s political followers, saying they fired on officers who wanted to search their cars.

A Sindh provincial government notice said provincial high court Judge Ali Mohammed Baluch will head an inquiry tribunal that will submit a report within a month.

Sindh’s police chief also ordered a senior officer to investigate “whether or not right procedure was adopted by the police and whether there was an excessive use of force or not,” news reports said.

Provincial Chief Minister Abdullah Shah said the police officers involved in the shooting had been suspended from duty. He also appealed for calm.

Benazir Bhutto’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party declared three days of mourning for Murtaza Bhutto, who led a breakaway faction of the party in opposition to the government.