(AP)
More than 150,000 Pakistanis flocked to the mausoleum of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday after some walked hundreds of miles (kilometers) to offer flowers and kiss her grave on the first anniversary of her assassination.Police officer Tanveer Odho estimated between 150,000 to 200,000 turned out at the mausoleum Saturday.Some mourners beat their heads and chests and wailing. Several burst into tears."I am taking these flowers to take home and will show my daughters this gift," said 41-year-old Saifullah Khan.
Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007, as she was
leaving a rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, just outside the capital of Islamabad.
Her assassination shocked the world, fanning revulsion at rising mi
litant violence in Pakistan as well as conspiracy theories that the country's powerful spy agencies
were involved.
Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, took over Bhutto's party after her death and was elected president in September, facing a crus
hing 
economic crisis and soaring violence by militants also blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghan
istan.
The country of 160 million is now facing a fresh crisis triggered by last month's terror attacks on Mumbai, which India has blamed on Pakistani militants.
"She gave a voice to the people, gave a voice to the downtrodden, the poor and the laborers," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a telev
ised speech. "She was a hope for
the people of this country, she was a hope for this region."
President Zardri was to speak to
mourners later saturday.Sher Mohammad
23, was among many supp
orters who trekked hundreds of miles (kilometers) to 
pay
respects. "She gave her life for the people of this country, so we can walk a few miles to pay homage to her dig
nity," said Mohammad, whose feet were swollen from the trip.
At United Nations headquarters in New York, Secretary
-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he hoped a U.N. commission
would be est
ablished in the nea
r future to investigate Bhutto's killing.
Bhutto's party and Zardari have
demanded a U.N. probe, but have not followed up vague allegations they
made after her death that forces linked to then-President Pervez M
usharraf were inv
olved.
Musharraf's government blamed Baitullah Me
hsud, a Pakistani militant commander with reported links to al-Qaida, citing a communications intercep
t in which Mehsud allegedly congratulated some of his
henchmen. A
Mehsud spokesman has denied any involvement.
The United
States also said Islamic extremists carried out the attack.
The Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, must authorize any investigating commission.
