GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan, Feb 7 (AFP) - Thousands of people massed around Benazir Bhuttos tomb in southern Pakistan early Thursday to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for the slain opposition leader.

Many mourners spent the night in tents outside the huge white Bhutto mausoleum in the rural village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, listening to mourning songs on tape recorders and reciting verses from the Koran.

Party officials said they expected tens of thousands of people to turn out to mark Bhuttos “chehlum” -- the completion of the mourning period following her assassination on December 27.

People had come in groups and caravans mainly from across southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces, but with others from as far north as Pakistan Kashmir.

“We spent three days to reach here on foot from Jamshoro,” a city 210 miles south of Larkana, said Mushtaq Ali, a diehard party supporter.

Supporters also gathered in Larkana and in the adjacent village of Naudero, where the Bhutto family ancestral home is located.