Pakistan has 'intelligence intercepts' indicating that al-Qaeda was behind the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the Interior Ministry has said today.
Former prime minister Ms Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi yesterday.
'We have intelligence intercepts indicating that al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is behind her assassination,' an Interior Ministry spokesman told a news conference.
Mr Mehsud is one of Pakistan's most wanted militant leaders and is based in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border.
The spokesman said authorities had recorded an intercept this morning in which Mr Mehsud had congratulated his people for carrying out the attack.
He also said Mr Mehsud was behind a suicide bomb attack on Ms Bhutto in Karachi that killed about 140 people hours after she arrived back in the country from eight years of exile on 18 October.
The spokesman also said Ms Bhutto had not been shot, nor had she been hit by shrapnel from the blast but she had been killed when the force of the explosion crashed her head against a lever on the sun-roof of her vehicle.
The bomber struck when Ms Bhutto was leaving the rally and she stood up out of her bullet-proof vehicle's sun-roof to wave to supporters just outside the venue.
Three shots were fired and the blast then went off as Bhutto was ducking back inside the car.
Two security officials had said earlier today that Ms Butto had been shot in the head and neck.
Burial takes place at family's mausoleum
The assassinated opposition leader was buried at her family's mausoleum in the southern province of Sindh.
Thousands of mourners thronged Ms Bhutto's ancestral home as her body arrived aboard a military aircraft accompanied by her husband Asif Ali Zardari and their three children.
Her coffin was taken by ambulance to her family home in Sindh's Larkana district for a funeral that got under way with a procession of emotional followers.
Her husband asked the people to show patience and give Ms Bhutto's family the courage to bear this loss.
Ms Bhutto will be interred at the family mausoleum in Nau Dero.
Sixteen people, including three policemen, have been killed in violent protests in Sindh province since the assassination.
Sporadic gunfire was heard throughout Karachi as crowds set fire to vehicles and buildings in the aftermath of the killing.
Pakistani police have fired tear gas to try to quell protests in the city of Rawalpindi.
Major Athar Ali told reporters the force had deployed 16,000 troops in southern Sindh province, 10,000 of them in Karachi alone.
The army said it had sent troops into several cities in the south of the country ahead of the funeral of Ms Bhutto.
Meanwhile, a blast at an election meeting in the northwest killed six people including a candidate for the party that supports President Pervez Musharraf.
The events have stoked fears that the 8 January election meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule could be put off.
But caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said there was no change in timing for now.
The Pakistan Embassy in Dublin will open a book of condolence for Ms Bhutto this afternoon.
Members of the public may sign the book from 2pm until 5pm today.
To view a timeline of the recent events in Pakistan over the past few months click here.
