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Witnesses said Bhutto was fired upon at close range before the blast, and an official from her party said she was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a suicide attacker.

Bhutto was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Rawalpindi at 6:16 p.m. after the doctors had tried to resuscitate her for thirty-five minutes. She had shrapnel injuries, the doctors said. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Ms. Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

The rally site was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground.

CNN reported that witnesses at the scene described the assassin as opening fire on Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up.

At the hospital where Bhutto was taken, a large number of police began to cordon off the area as angry party workers smashed windows.

Many protesters shouted "Musharraf Dog". One man was crying hysterically, saying "O my sister has been killed." Amid the crowd, dozens of people beat their chests, and chanted slogans against Mr. Musharraf.

The attack immediately raised questions about whether parliamentary elections scheduled for January will go ahead or be postponed.

She was the target of a suicide attack in October this year in Karachi when she returned from exile to Pakistan. That attack narrowly missed Bhutto but killed scores of people, including many of her party workers.

The attack Thursday in Rawalpindi is the latest blow to Pakistan's treacherous political situation. It comes just days after President Pervez Musharraf lifted a state of emergency, imposed in part because of terrorist threats.

A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, she brought the backing of Washington and London, where she impresses with her political lineage, her considerable charm and her persona as a female Muslim leader.

Agencies