Pakistan cities shut down after Bhutto death

KARACHI: Daily life for tens of millions of Pakistanis was on hold Saturday, with major cities virtually shut down as the nation mourned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.   

On the second day of official mourning for the slain opposition leader, most people were unable to buy food or petrol, with all shops, fuel stations, banks and offices closed down.   

The streets of the country's main cities -- Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar -- were largely empty, and in many places there was evidence of the unrest that has left more than 30 dead since Bhutto's killing.   

Burnt-out cars littered the streets in the southern town of Larkana, a Bhutto stronghold where groups of her supporters were roaming the streets shouting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf.   

The situation was tense in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and the economic hub of this nation of 160 million people, with a heavy army and paramilitary presence on the streets.   

Few people dared to venture outside and even the country's largest private charity, the Edhi Foundation, said its ambulances had been wrecked by vandals.   

"They've smashed up our ambulances," a foundation official in Karachi told. "And we don't have any fuel."   

With the fuel shortage, the unrest and the official mourning period which ends Sunday night following Bhutto's murder on Thursday, most people were unable or unwilling to move about.   

Buses were not running, few taxi drivers were working and the roads were dotted with vehicles left behind when they ran out of petrol, AFP reporters said.