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THE Pakistan Embassy in Bahrain has opened a condolence book to mark the death of the former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Benazir was shot at a political rally in Rawalpindi last Thursday just days before the scheduled national elections.
Many of her party supporters also died in the suicide bombing attack that immediately followed the shooting.
The Pakistani flag flew at half mast in Bahrain as the Government of Pakistan announced three days of national mourning in the country.
Muhammad Saleem, charge d'affairs at the Embassy of Pakistan in Zinj, Bahrain, told Gulf Weekly that there was a steady stream of dignitaries, representatives of human rights organisations, members of the Pakistani community and civil society as they poured in to express their shock and disbelief at the tragic incident.
Mr Saleem said: "The entries in the condolence book are in the hundreds. Apart from that, people all over Bahrain are phoning in and sending in condolence mail. The outpouring of emotion has been overwhelming.
"Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's reputation extended beyond national boundaries, she was an international figure. Her assassination is a great national loss that has plunged the Pakistani nation in shock and disbelief."
The violence has shaken the whole Pakistani community - both supporters and opponents of the controversial politician - on the island.
"My heart went out to Benazir's three children when I heard about her death. More than the loss of a political leader I felt sad to know that Bilawal, Asifa and Bakhtawar had lost their mother.
"Pakistan's politics is incomplete without Benazir around. She made all the women of Pakistan proud by the fact that she was the first female prime minister of an Islamic state," said Maryam Nisar, 30, mother of two young children, adding that she cried when she watched the television coverage of the incident.
"No one deserves this kind of violent death even if it was a corrupt politician like Benazir Bhutto. This is an abhorrent way to deal with differences which should rather be discussed in a public forum instead of employing such gruesome means to end it.
"Her death means that no one is safe in Pakistan, be it a political leader or a common man," said Salman Chaudhry, 35, a banker at Gulf Investment Bank (GIB).
Qari Mohammad Hashim, 54, a Quran teacher who has been living in Manama for the last 31 years lamented at the sad state of affairs of Pakistan.
"This is a sad chapter in Pakistan's history and I pray that the country remains stable. May God show the right path to the perpetrators who planned this violence on a woman," he said.
Imran ul Haque, 33, a businessman living in Lahore travelled to Bahrain the morning after Benazir's assassination and said that it took him a while to register the fact that she has been killed.
"How can President Musharraf say that he is winning the war against terrorism when he cannot provide security to a high-profile political leader in Pakistan against terrorists? Benazir was a very corrupt leader and in her stint as Prime Minister of Pakistan twice she did nothing good for the country in my opinion. I was never her supporter but my sympathies are with her family in this trying time," he said as he was returning to Pakistan to manage the state of affairs of his automotive spare-parts factory that had been shut for two days after the incident.
Mohammad Shafiq, 28, who owns men's hairdressers, Rafie Salon, in Hoora, is going back to Pakistan for his engagement this week. "Ever since Benazir Bhutto's death I haven't switched on the television or indulged in anything remotely entertaining as I feel very depressed. This is no way for a leader who was fighting for democracy to die!"
