Pakistan embraces 'political goddess' Bhutto

[NewsCaster]

Rizwan Tabassum / AFP - Getty ImagesCrowds gather outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Thursday. By Waj S. Khan, NBC NewsGARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan --  In a country where ethnicity is more important than nationalism, little is celebrated collectively other than the odd cricket victory, and most fallen heroes are forgotten or berated, the commemoration of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has gone the other direction and is verging on deification.

Since Bhutto’s death on Dec. 27, 2007, the region’s deep obsession with mysticism and the occult has evolved to incorporate her legacy.

“I’m here because the ‘martyred queen’ was there for us,” said Mustafa, a police officer from Bhutto’s nearby hometown of Larkana who volunteered to oversee security during a rally last week at a massive Bhutto mausoleum, a modern rendition of the Taj Mahal.

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