DUBAI, Dec 27: Supporters of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in Dubai, where she made her base through eight years of exile, were left in shock on Thursday following her assassination two months after she returned home.

“I’m so sad. I feel that my own sister is dead,” said Zubeir Bashir, Middle East spokesman for Pakistan People’s Party.

“This is a big tragedy for Pakistan. This is a very big shock for us,” he told AFP by telephone as he headed to the Bhutto family home in Dubai. Bashir said that members of Ms Bhutto’s family who had remained in the Gulf emirate after her return to her homeland in October were already on their way to Pakistan.

Dozens of cars were seen outside Ms Bhutto’s home in an upmarket neighbourhood of the city on Thursday evening while police deployed to try to prevent press photographers from taking pictures. The PPP leader in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed Akran Farooqi, choked with emotion as he tried to express his grief over her killing.

“I can’t say anything... I’m totally upset,” he said between sobs.

The UAE, which hosted her during her years of exile, condemned the assassination, along with governments across the Middle East.

“The UAE has been tormented by this huge loss, which did not hit Pakistan only, but also affected the UAE,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency. “Words fail to express our condemnation of this criminal act and our pain for the loss of Benazir Bhutto,” he said.—AFP