The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last night triggered violent convulsions across the country, casting grave doubts on elections scheduled for January 8th and marking a dark finale to a tragedy-strewn life, writes Declan Walshin Karachi.
Anger erupted in cities across Pakistan, where enraged supporters rioted in the streets, burned trains and businesses, and attacked policemen. Gunfire rang out on the streets of Karachi, the port city where Ms Bhutto spent much of her life.
Two months after her triumphant return from exile, a lone gunman fired several shots at her as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi, hitting her in the neck and chest. Seconds later, a fireball caused by a suicide bomb engulfed her vehicle and killed at least 20.
The former prime minister was rushed to a nearby hospital where distraught supporters burst through doors, smashed windows and tried to storm into the operating theatre where surgeons struggled to save her life. She was proclaimed dead shortly afterwards.
Initial suspicions fell on Islamist militants who had previously threatened to kill the 54-year-old scion of Pakistan's greatest political dynasty. In October, Ms Bhutto survived a massive suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 140 people.
But angry accusations were also flung at fundamentalist sympathisers within Pakistan's military apparatus, who Ms Bhutto had earlier claimed wanted to see her dead.
The assassination is the climax to an extraordinary series of crises to have rocked Pakistan over the past nine months as president Pervez Musharraf sought to consolidate his grip on power. The last comparable convulsion was the war that led to the secession of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971.
In a brief televised address, Mr Musharraf declared three days of mourning. "This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said. "We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
The ramifications are likely to be immediate and grave. Analysts said Mr Musharraf may seize on the turmoil to postpone the January polls and possibly reimpose the emergency rule he established on November 3rd but lifted shortly before Christmas.
The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in the nuclear-armed country, which has seen sieges, suicide bombings, high political drama and a worrying surge in Islamist violence over the past 12 months.
Alarmed western leaders mixed condemnation and tributes with calls for restraint and a continuation of Pakistan's fragile political process.
A sombre president George Bush, speaking near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, condemned the killing as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy". He called on Pakistanis to "honour Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process".
The Italian premier, Romano Prodi, called her "a woman who chose to fight her battle until the end". British prime minister Gordon Brown hailed Ms Bhutto as "a woman of immense personal courage and bravery".
Ms Bhutto's violent death echoed that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prime minister deposed by a military dictator in 1977 and hanged two years later. Her two brothers were killed in murky circumstances in the following years.
The killing of Ms Bhutto pushes Pakistan into uncharted waters, calling into question Mr Musharraf's ability to rein in the Islamist militants who threaten the country's uncertain stability.
Late last night, Ms Bhutto's body was moved to Chakala airbase, where it was due to be flown to her home province of Sindh.
She will be buried near her ancestral home in Larkana, inside a huge mausoleum built in recent years to house her father and two brothers, the other ghosts of Pakistan's most cursed political dynasty. - (Additional reporting by Waqar Kiani/Guardian)