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Islamabad: Thousands of people yesterday paid homage to Benazir Bhutto, prayed for her soul and showered flower petals at her grave at the family's ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in Sindh province on the 40th day after her assassination.
Although the Pakistan People's Party had asked workers to hold commemorative ceremonies in their towns and cities across the country, people in thousands converged on the village from all over country including Azad Kashmir.
Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and political successor, said in a speech to the massive crowd outside the white marble building he feared he would be assassinated like his late wife.
"We will avenge Benazir Bhutto's martyrdom in a democratic way," said Zardari speaking against a backdrop of the party's black, green and red flag.
"If I succeed, you will see me alive. If I am martyred like her, you will be the ones to take my coffin to the grave."
Heavy security was in place for the ceremonies in the rural southern village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, where Bhutto was buried the day after her assassination on December 27.
Hundreds of paramilitary troops and police stood guard, while walk-though scanners were set up to check the crowds flooding into the mausoleum to throw rose petals over her grave.
The government has accused a tribal warlord with links to the Taliban and Al Qaida of masterminding Bhutto's murder, but she wrote before her death that government and intelligence figures were plotting to kill her.
Authorities arrested two more suspects yesterday in the suicide attack that killed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, an official said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said the two men were arrested in Rawalpindi, where Bhutto died in a gun and bomb attack on December 27.
He identified them only by the single names Rafaqat and Husnain, and provided no details of their alleged role in the attack that also killed 20 other people.
Last month, authorities said they had arrested two suspects, including a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have been part of the suicide squad assigned to kill Bhutto.
The boy told investigators that the five-person squad had been dispatched to Rawalpindi by Baitullah Mehsud, a prominent Taliban militant leader with strong ties to Al Qaida.
Yesterday's arrests were disclosed hours after a team of Scotland Yard investigators returned to Pakistan to report the conclusions of their probe into the former prime minister's killing.
The British investigators were assigned to resolve exactly how Bhutto died - amid confusion over whether she was killed by a gunshot or the impact of the suicide bombing that followed.
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