ISLAMABAD - Masked gunmen shot dead a supporter of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Saturday, as violence triggered by her assassination entered a third day and al Qaeda-linked militants denied killing her.
Pakistan's government had said on Friday it had proof al Qaeda was behind the suicide attack on the 54-year-old former prime minister, whose death has plunged the nuclear-armed country into crisis and triggered bloody protests.
But a spokesman for the al Qaeda leader the government blamed denied involvement, and Bhutto's party dismissed the official explanation, saying President Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.
Pakistanis remained on edge on Saturday, after protesters torched shops, lorries, welfare centres and ambulances overnight.
"There's a lot of rioting going on in my neighbourhood, Clifton. Everything has been burned up. Shops have been looted," Ali Khan, 36, country manager for Audi Pakistan, told Reuters as he stood outside his Audi garage in Karachi's business district.
In Karachi, a 27-year-old man wearing a tunic made from a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) flag was killed by gunmen. He had just shouted "Bhutto is great" while returning from the mausoleum where Bhutto was buried on Friday, police said.
The killing brought to 33 the death toll from violence since Thursday's gun and bomb attack, stoking fears a January 8 election meant to restore civilian rule to the U.S. ally could be put off.
MILITANT LEADER
Late on Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference: "We have intelligence intercepts indicating that al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is behind (Bhutto's) assassination."
However, a spokesman for Mehsud denied the claim.
"I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
A spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said the government must show solid evidence.
"The government is nervous," he said. "They are trying to cover up their failure" to provide adequate security.
Tens of thousands of Bhutto's supporters wept and beat their heads as she was laid to rest on Friday. Troops were called out to quell protests in her home province of Sindh, where she had huge support, particularly among the rural poor.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, told the BBC her will would be read out to a meeting of the PPP by her son on Sunday.
