Bhutto was shot in the neck by her attacker who then blew himself up.

The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the January 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the nation.

Suspicion was likely to fall on resurgent Islamic militants linked to al- Qaeda and the Taleban who hated Bhutto for her close ties to the Americans and support for the war on terror.

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Next to President Pervez Musharraf, Bhutto, 54, was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat the spread of Islamic extremism, a theme she returned to often in her campaign speeches.

Her death will leave a void at the top of her Pakistan People's Party, the largest political group in the country.

As news of her death spread, supporters at the hospital in Rawalpindi smashed glass doors and stoned cars. Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in her killing.

Angry supporters also took to the streets in the northwestern city of Peshawar as well other areas, chanting slogans against Musharraf.

In Rawalpindi, Bhutto's supporters burned election posters from the ruling party and attacked police.

In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as supporters from Bhutto's party burned tires.

The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed a rally of thousands of supporters in the garrison city.

At least 20 others were killed in the blast.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.

"At 6.16pm she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at the hospital.

"I saw her with my own eyes sitting in a vehicle after addressing the rally. Then, I heard an explosion,"sobbing Tahir Mahmood, 55, said. "I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead," he said.

Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on October 18. Her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Bhutto was killed just a few kilometers from the scene of her father's violent death 28 years earlier. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and the founder of the party that his daughter would later lead, was executed by hanging in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder.

ASSOCIATED PRESS